


KEYWORDS 



IN THE 



TEACHING OF JESUS 




A. T. ROBERTSON 





Class 
Book 







Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



KEYWORDS 

IN THE 

TEACHING OF JESUS 



KEYWORDS 

IN THE 

TEACHING OF JESUS 



^ BY 

ATT. ROBERTSON, D. D. 

Professor of New Testament Interpretation in the 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 

AUTHOR OF 

" Life and Letters of John A. Broadus " 

"Teaching of Jesus Concerning God the Father " 

" Student's Chronological New Testament " 

" Critical Notes to Broadus' Harmony of the Gospels " 

etc. 




PHILADELPHIA 

Smetican 3Bapttet publication Society 

1906 



*\ 



1>%S> 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

MAY 21 1906 

Copyright Entry 




COPY 



Copyright 1906 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



Published April, 1906 



from tbe Society's own press 






■ 



Go 



THE MEMORY OF 

MY MOTHER WHO TAUGHT 

ME TO LOVE JESUS 



PREFACE 

The seven chapters in this little book were de- 
livered as lectures to the Jackson Springs Sum- 
mer Assembly, under the auspices of the Baptist 
State Convention of North Carolina, in the last 
week of June, 1904. They are published practi- 
cally as they were delivered and at the request of 
the Assembly. Many delightful memories come 
thronging my mind as I now write, memories of 
the wood robins caroling in the pine trees as I 
tried to talk to a large and deeply spiritual and 
sympathetic audience about the words of Jesus. 
If a still larger audience can be led to earnest 
study of the Master's teaching, this volume will 
not be in vain. These seven lectures are not 
an exhaustive discussion of the teaching of Christ. 
No book is that, but this one only claims to set 
forth the main points in Christ's teaching around 
which the rest clings. 

The first chapter discusses the same theme as 
the author's book, "The Teaching of Jesus Con- 
cerning God the Father," American Tract Society, 
New York, 1904. It is not, however, a copy of 
that book, nor a mere condensation of it, but an 

vii 



Vlll PREFACE 

entirely independent treatment, though the same 

theological position is taken. 

Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and 

learn of him. That is the place for every disciple 

of the Lord. 

A. T. Robertson. 

Louisville, Ky. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I p AGE 

God the Father n 

CHAPTER II 
The Son 25 

CHAPTER III 
Sin 41 

CHAPTER IV 
The Kingdom 56 

CHAPTER V 
Righteousness 78 

CHAPTER VI 
The Holy Spirit 93 

CHAPTER VII 

The Future Life 109 

ix 



Keywords in the teaching 

of JESUS 

CHAPTER I 

GOD THE FATHER 

"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14 : 9). 

Jesus is the great Teacher of all time. There 
had been great teachers before him, Confucius, 
Buddha, Zoroaster, Socrates. Each taught many 
high and noble ideals. Each left a strong mark 
on the life of men. Great teachers have come 
since the time of Jesus, some who show no trace 
of his influence, as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. 
We would detract naught from the glory of these 
men. But when all is said, the Teacher of teachers 
is Jesus. His words alone always proclaim eternal 
principles. Truth is axiomatic, if it is fundamen- 
tal. Jesus dared to say that he was the Truth. 
No other man can say that and tell the truth. 
The significant thing is that men recognize that 
this claim is true. His kingdom, as he said to 
Pilate, is that of truth. This is his realm. This 

11 



12 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

is not the main thing that Jesus came to do, to 
teach the truth. What he did is more than what 
he said. What he is, is more than either. He was 
not a mere teacher, however great. Let us never 
forget that. Preaching and practice with him were 
not separated. And preaching with him was teach- 
ing. He was no mere setter-forth of orthodox 
phrases, no mere stickler for the forms of faith, the 
shell of truth. In fact he was the ruthless iconoclast 
of his day, the foe of mere ceremonial observance. 
Jesus is the supreme example of the superiority of 
spirit over form. Hear him as he says : "It is the 
spirit that giveth life ; the flesh profiteth nothing : 
the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, 
and are life " (John 6 : 63). This is the chief dif- 
ference between Jesus and all other teachers. The 
words of Jesus, then, are the Pierian spring from 
which men love to drink. " This is my beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matt. 
17:5). Thus the Father spoke to Peter, James, 
and John on the mount of Transfiguration. 

The first word in time and importance that we 

have from the new Teacher is about the Father. 

He was only twelve years old and 

G °FatLr he had been left behind in the temple 
in Jerusalem. When Joseph and 

Mary sought him sorrowing, he said in surprise, 

" Knew ye not that I must be in my Father's 



GOD THE FATHER 13 

house ? M (Luke 2 : 49.) Here for the first time 
the growing boy with dawning Messianic conscious- 
ness speaks out the throbbing secret of his heart. 
He must. The necessity is on him. And it is 
"my Father's house." He sustains a special 
relation to God the Father that is not true of other 
men. The first word is the key-word to his after- 
life and teaching. He goes back to his Nazareth 
home and works obediently and humbly till his 
"hour" of manifestation comes. When the hour 
does strike and Jesus comes out of the baptismal 
water praying, he hears the Father say : " Thou 
art my beloved Son ; in thee I am well pleased " 
(Luke 3 : 22). 

The Father has formally and perhaps publicly 
acknowledged him as his Son. The boy of twelve 
had not been mistaken. The Father 

has called him his own Son. He Th e Father of 

J esus 
will boldly claim God as his own 

Father, in a sense not true of others. True the 

devil challenges this claim by saying in the first 

temptation, "If thou art a Son of God " (Greek text, 

Matt. 4 : 3). But Jesus does not doubt. The first 

time he comes to Jerusalem he cries : "Make not 

my Father's house a house of merchandise " (John 

2:16). On his second visit to Jerusalem during 

his ministry, he justifies his right to heal on the 

Sabbath day by calmly saying : " My Father 



14 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

worketh even until now, and I work " (John 5:17). 
The Pharisees are enraged, charging him with 
making himself equal with God, but Jesus main- 
tains his claim by an extended apologetic. Later 
in his Galilean ministry he will even say : " All 
things have been delivered unto me of my Father" 
(Matt. 11 : 27). He claims also that no one 
"knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him " (ibid.). 
"I and the Father are one" (John 10 : 30), he 
asserts at the feast of Dedication. " Thou makest 
thyself God," his enemies retort. Thus it goes to 
the end. This word of Jesus about the Father 
angers the Pharisees beyond measure. But he 
dies with this high claim on his lips : " Father, 
into thy hands I commend my spirit " (Luke 
23 : 46). 

Jesus is able to reveal the Father to whomso- 
ever he wills (Matt. 1 1 : 27). Others, then, can 
know the Father and be his chil- 
The Father of d ren . n0 ^ f however, in the same 
All who Believe <_, , T . ,. c „ 

i Jesus sense that Jesus is his Son. He 

taught men to say : " Our Father 
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name " (Matt. 
6 : 9). But not all are children of God in the 
sense of actual enjoyment of spiritual blessings. 
The younger son had gone into a far country. 
When he came to himself he said : " I will arise 



GOD THE FATHER I 5 

and go to my father " (Luke 15 : 18). But he 
knows that he is no more worthy to be called a 
son. He says frankly : " Father, I have sinned 
against heaven, and in thy sight." This confession 
is the hard thing to say, and this is why so many 
men never become Christians. But this is the 
only way to come back to the Father. Jesus put 
the divine side of the great initial spiritual change 
thus to Nicodemus : " Except a man be born anew, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God " (John 3 : 3). 
There is then a line of cleavage between men. 
Some are without, some are within the kingdom 
of God. But all who are within had to "enter the 
kingdom." Indeed, Jesus flatly told the Pharisees 
of Jerusalem that God was not their Father. "Ye 
are of your father, the devil " (John 8 : 44). 

The sinner is not like the beast of the field. 
He was made in the image of God, and that like- 
ness was a spiritual likeness. God 
is the Father of our spirits as well But in One 
as of our bodies (Heb. 12:9). We 8 jJJ^J d }^ 6 
are indeed, rebellious children. We ' jj en 
have left the Father's home and 
spurned the Father's love. We are practically 
outcast children, but outcast not by the Father's 
wish. We have made it impossible for the Father 
to deal with us as sons. We are subjects of the 
just wrath of the Father. We are by nature 



1 6 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

sinful, as Jesus implies by his insistence on the 
necessity of the new birth. If we knew the hor- 
rible reality of sin, we could understand how the 
Father cannot let the unrepentant sinner belong 
to his family. But there is a hope for the sinner. 
He still has a spiritual nature, however blurred. 
He is still kin to God and is open to the work of 
the Spirit of God, else all hope would be lost. It 
is not enough to be the child of Abraham by 
descent and actually a child of the devil. The 
real child of Abraham is the spiritual descendant. 
So the lost child must be found, the dead must 
come to life again. 

Jesus builds his teaching on the Old Testament. 

He commended the Jews for reading the Scriptures, 

for they " bear witness of me" (John 

The Old Testa- 5 . 3g y i n t h e Old Testament God 

the Father * s ^ e father in the sense of Creator 
of all. He is also the Father of 
Israel in a special sense. He is the King of the 
kingdom of Israel and the Father of the family. 
What the Jews failed to understand was that the 
spiritual Israel was the real Israel, the spiritual 
kingdom the real kingdom of God. Thus the 
Gentiles as well as the Jews really became children 
of the Father. " Ye offspring of vipers " (Matt. 
12 : 34), Jesus called the Pharisees who plumed 
themselves on being children of Abraham. " If 



GOD THE FATHER 1 7 

ye were children of Abraham, ye would do the 
works of Abraham " (John 8 : 39). So John the 
Baptist said : "Think not to say within yourselves, 
we have Abraham for our Father : for I say unto 
you that God is able of these stones to raise up 
children unto Abraham" (Matt. 3 : 9). 

This is the most distinctive word that Jesus has 
to offer as a teacher of men. He has new light 
to give about God. It is the same 
kind of light that they already had The New Li S ht 
in the Old Testament Scriptures. abo J^ e e F S ather 
But their own traditions and ser- 
mons had darkened this light. Socrates was put 
to death by the Athenians for new doctrine about 
strange divinities, so they charged. Will the Jews 
stand new light from Jesus about God ? This is 
precisely the trouble with the ancient Pharisees 
and their modern representatives. They are 
encased in a shell of ignorant omniscience. In 
fact, says Jesus : " Ye do err, not knowing the 
Scriptures nor the power of God " (Matt. 22 : 29). 
He knows "who the Father is" (Luke 10 : 22). 
And no one else has seen the Father (John 6 : 46). 
" Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us " 
(John 14 : 8), Philip pleaded. So it will. That 
is the acme of wisdom, to know God. Hear Jesus 
again : " O righteous Father, the world knew thee 
not, but I knew thee ; and these know that thou 



1 8 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

didst send me ; and I made known unto them thy 
name, and will make it known, that the love 
wherewith thou lovest me may be in them and I 
in them " (John 17 : 25 f.). Once more he says: 
" I glorified thee on the earth " (John 17 14). 

Jesus claims to know the way. What is it ? 

It is simple and plain: "/ am the way " (John 

14 : 6). He is the way to the 

The Way to Father. When Thomas was at a 

Father ^oss, *^ s was t ' ie answer - He adds : 
"No one cometh to the Father, but 
by me" (John 14 : 6). He is not merely a way; 
he is the only way. Herein lies the supreme value 
of Christianity. It offers Jesus to men, the only 
way to God the Father. Here is the call for 
mission effort at home and abroad. Here is 
the incentive for evangelical work, for educa- 
tional effort, for pressing Christ on the hearts of 
men, for said Jesus, " He that honoreth not the 
Son honoreth not the Father which sent him " 
(John 5 : 23). When Philip doubted, Jesus re- 
plied : " Have I been so long time with you, and 
dost thou not know me, Philip ? he that hath seen 
me hath seen the Father " (John 14 : 9). Indeed, 
he asks : " How sayest thou, Shew us the Father ? " 
Philip had seen Jesus. More than the words of 
Jesus about the Father is Jesus himself. He is 
the Son and is in the image of the Father. " I 



GOD THE FATHER 1 9 

am in the Father and the Father in me" (John 
14 : 11). The way to know the Father is to know 
Jesus, for the Father is like Jesus. " He that 
seeth me, seeth him that sent me" (John 12 : 45). 

The Father loves the world that he has made, 
but most of all the men made in his own image. 
When the prodigal son was return- 
ing home, " while he was yet afar The Father's 
off, his father saw him, and was f J£XL 
moved with compassion, and ran, 
and fell on his neck, and kissed him " (Luke 15 : 
20). This is the picture that Jesus has drawn of 
the Father's compassionate yearning for his rebel- 
lious and outcast children. To the resentful elder 
son the Father said : " This thy brother was dead, 
and is alive again; and was lost, and is found " 
(Luke 15 : 32). Hence Jesus came to die for 
sinful men, not for animals, for sinful men are lost 
children of God. 

The yearning love of the Father does not relax 
the Father's justice. He will not out of hand for- 
give the sinner. There had to be 
adjustment, reconciliation. Here is ^ e Fathers 
the real grace of God the Father. the Sfamer ° 
" For God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth on him should not perish, but have 
eternal life " (John 3 : 16). The love is on God's 



20 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

part first. This great love provides the basis of 
reconciliation, the death of the Son on the cross. 
" So must the Son of Man be lifted up " (John 3 : 
14). He gave "his life a ransom for many" 
(Matt. 20 : 28). From the very first Jesus is con- 
scious that his death is necessary as the sacrifice 
for sin. To John the Baptist he is " the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world " (John 
1 : 29). It is not a surprise to Jesus when he 
comes to die. He not only knew it, but had 
interpreted it as the Father's plan for the redemp- 
tion of men. But the atoning death of Jesus in 
the sinner's stead is only the basis of reconcilia- 
tion. The work is not completed till the sinner is 
born again, repents, trusts the Father, and returns 
a suppliant to the throne of grace. The atoning 
death was an objective fact ; the reconciling grace 
works in the inner spirit. This is the Father's 
plan of salvation as outlined by Jesus. 

Of this the sinner may be sure. "There is joy 

in heaven over one sinner that repent eth " (Luke 

15:7). " Let us eat and make 

A Welcome for m erry: for this my son was dead, 
the Eepentant , . ,. . , , 

Sinner a 1S ve a & ain > anc * was ' ost > 
and is found" (Luke 15 : 32). 

Jesus is the way to the Father and he speaks for 

himself thus : " All that which the Father giveth 

me shall come unto me ; and him that cometh to 



GOD THE FATHER 21 

me I will in no wise cast out " (John 6:37). 

This is true also : " No man can come unto me 

except the Father which sent me draw him " (John 

6 : 44). We leave unsolved the reconciliation of 

this initial drawing of the Father by the Holy 

Spirit with the gracious invitation of Jesus who 

said : " Come unto me all ye that labor and are 

heavy laden and I will give you rest " (Matt. 1 1 : 

28). In the realm of spirit the mystery of the 

freedom of our spirits and the sovereignty of God 

is solved. Let us exercise our freedom and trust 

God to exercise his sovereignty. He is responsible 

for that, not we, and we can trust the Father to 

do right even when we cannot understand his 

plans. We may be sure that his sovereign will is 

not a hindrance, but a help to our weakness. 

The Father is merciful and has shown it by the 

highest of all proofs. He held not back his own 

Son. Yet the inexorable law stands 

for all who do not make peace with % % er as 

Judge 
the Father through Christ. Jesus 

himself will act as judge, it is true (John 5 : 22), 
but he will execute the will of the Father. Con- 
demnation rests on the unrepentant sinner. The 
penalty of the Father's law will fall from the lips of 
him who came to set us free from that law. Jesus, 
the Saviour, will say : " Depart from me, ye that 
work iniquity " (Matt. 7 : 23). " I never knew you." 



22 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

Jesus does not often use theological terms. He 

sets vital truths in living speech, not in abstract 

phrase. Perhaps this is one reason 

What about the w hy the people hung on his words. 

Character t., -^ ., i T i 

of the Father? Father is eternal. Jesus speaks 

of the glory which he had with the 
Father before the world was (John 17:5). The 
Father is personal as this same passage shows. 
He and the Father had blessed converse with each 
other before the objective universe came into ex- 
istence. Jesus is not troubled by the philosoph- 
ical theories of pantheism or monism. He knows 
that he exists ; he knows also that the Father 
exists. God is spirit, he tells the woman of 
Samaria (John 4 : 24). Hence materialism is un- 
true as well as pantheism. God is spirit, not body. 
We are like God in having a spiritual nature with 
which we must worship him. God does not make 
his abode simply in this place or that, neither in 
Gerizim nor Jerusalem. The Father, again, is 
almighty. "With God all things are possible" 
(Matt. 19 : 26). And the Father is good, abso- 
lutely good. "None is good save one, even God" 
(Luke 19 : 18). God is one. "Our God is one 
Lord," not many (Mark 12 : 29). He is once more 
"the living Father" (John 6 : 57). Thus does 
Jesus speak of his Father and our Father. He 
had been in the bosom of the Father and was able 



GOD THE FATHER 23 

to declare the Father to men (John i : 18). No 
one else has seen the Father (John 6 : 46). Hence 
no one else can declare the Father. 

It is not an absentee God that Jesus set forth 
to men. " My Father worketh even until now " 
(John 5 : 17). He cares for the 
lilies of the field, he watches the The Father is 
sparrows when they fall, he counts j n jr. w or j^ 
the hairs of our heads. With Jesus 
the Father is the ever-present reality. The world 
is transient and unstable. The world is the seem- 
ing, the Father the real. But the Father's hand 
is over all. 

This is mysticism to us, but not to Jesus. He 

was in the Father and the Father in him. He 

prayed that the disciples might be 

one in the Father and the Son (John The Father 

Dwells 
17:21). Indeed, he said : « If a k ffig 0Mldren 

man love me he will keep my word : 
and my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him " (John 
14 : 23). That is to bring heaven down to earth, 
for heaven is where God is. It was to do just this 
thing that Jesus left the glory of heaven that he 
might find the key to human hearts. The happi- 
ness of Jesus consists in bringing men back to 
God, to make reconciliation possible, to break 
down the middle wall of partition between God 



24 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

and man, between Jew and Gentile, to establish 
a real brotherhood of redeemed souls. He has 
taught us how the Father loves us. He has shown 
us what the Father is like. He has taught us to 
say, "Our Father." In his hour of anguish he 
himself cried, "Abba, Father." He offers to take 
us by the hand and put our hand in the Father's 
and be our Elder Brother. Si If ye had known 
me, ye should have known my Father also ; and 
from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him" 
(John 14 : 7). For " this is life eternal, that they 
might know thee the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17 : 3). 



CHAPTER II 

THE SON 

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am 
meek and lowly in heart" (Matt n : 29). 

Jesus has to speak of himself in order to set 
forth the Father. He does not talk of himself 
just to be speaking about himself. 

It would be egotistic in anybody else to speak 
of himself as our Lord does. Egotism is more 

than a weakness. It is abnormal, 

:* o 0*^,^0 ^ ;„co M ;fv ™™> „ i^* The Son's 
is a species 01 insanity, more or less p . 

severe. So Paul exhorted the Roman 

Christians so to think as to think soberly and not 

to think of themselves more highly than they ought 

to think (Rom. 12:3). " Let another man praise 

thee." This is the universal opinion of the world. 

Self-assertion is necessary to effective work; a 

cringing self-repression is pitiful, but self-conceit 

is repulsive. Why, then, can we retain our love 

and adoration for Jesus, if he spoke so much of 

himself ? It is because he was more than man. 

If he was merely a man, even the greatest of men, 

the terms that he uses of himself would be intoler- 

25 



26 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

able, as for instance, "I am the light of the world" 
(John 8 : 12). It is in the high relations that 
Jesus holds with the Father, in what he is, that he 
escapes the charge of egotism. 

In his " Intimations of Immortality" Words- 
worth pictures the soul as dimly conscious of a 
previous existence. We may well 

Jh e dismiss such poetic fancies. But 

Pre-incarnate 1 1 n r .1 1 

State of Jesus what sha11 we sa ^ of the repeated 
statements of Jesus on this subject 
concerning himself ? " Before Abraham was, I 
am" (John 8 : 58) ; " I came out from the Father, 
and am come into the world " (John 16 : 28) ; " the 
glory which I had with thee before the world was" 
(John 17:5). We may well agree with the claim 
of Jesus that "a greater than Solomon is here" 
and "a greater than Jonah" (Luke 11:31 f.). It 
is an easy answer to say that Jesus means only 
ideal pre-existence by such high words. He ex- 
isted in the mind of the Father, it is said. Such 
quibbling is puerile, for Christ is speaking of per- 
sonal experiences and objective facts. He had 
glory, existed, came forth from the Father. " For 
thou lovedst me before the foundation of the 
world" (John 17 : 24). It is far more manly to 
say at once that Jesus did not know what he was 
saying. He would then be an ignorant enthusiast, 
it is true. If we credit his character and his words 



THE SON 27 

and John's account of them, we must admit this 
sublime fact of his pre-existence. The Synoptic 
account of the virgin birth of Jesus reinforces the 
teaching of Christ on this point. Likewise the 
express statement of John that in the beginning 
the Word was with God (John 1:1). We may- 
well stand in awe of one who can truthfully assert 
that he was with the Father before the world was. 
There is mystery here surely as to the possibility 
of the continuity of consciousness in such a transi- 
tion, but no greater than such continuity in the 
case of death. In reality Christ claims timeless 
existence, for he said: "I am" (John 8 : 58). 

"Father," "my Father," "the Father" are 
words often on the lips of Jesus. He was ever 
conscious of the peculiar intimacy 
between him and his Father. He Christ's 
likewise called himself " the Son of Father 
God" and "the Son," as the Father 
called him "my Son." "The Father loveth the 
Son" (John 5 : 20); "the hour cometh, and now 
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
of God ; and they that hear shall live " (John 5 : 
25); "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" 
Jesus asked the blind man who had recently been 
healed (John 9:35). When asked pointedly and 
under oath by Caiaphas if he was "the Christ, the 
Son of God," he answered, " I am " (Matt. 26 : 



28 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

63 f.). It was not often, for obvious reasons, that 
Jesus so clearly asserted that he was the Son of 
God. When he did so, it aroused vehement hos- 
tility (John 5, 8, and 10). At last his saying so 
brought condemnation from the Sanhedrin. It 
was not a mere vague term for the spiritual rela- 
tionship of men with God. He meant the full 
content of the words. " I and the Father are 
one" (John 10 : 30). We may not venture farther 
into the high and holy fellowship that exists be- 
tween the Father and the Son. The only begotten 
Son is in the bosom of the Father, John tells us 
(John 1 : 18). He is one in nature, one in thought, 
one in word, one in deed with the Father. "All 
things that the Father hath are mine" (John 16 : 
15). Jesus has life in himself as the Father has 
(John 5 : 26). Hence he could say : "I am the 
life" (John 11 : 25). Jesus, as the Father, is 
ultimate life. The scientists will never find life 
by the microscope, though lower forms of life con- 
tinue to be discovered. Not even radium is life. 

If these claims are true, Jesus is God as John 
expressly says. " The Word was God " (John 1:1). 

This is the clear import of the term 

The Divinity „ the s » „ the Son of God » in 

of Jesus . . _ _ 

the mouth of Jesus. " I proceeded 

forth and came from God " (John 8 : 42). " I 

know him ; for I am from him " (John 7 : 29). 



THE SON 29 

" Before Abraham was I am" (John 8 : 58). There 
is no stopping-place short of real deity in the 
claims of Christ. When he says : "lam the light 
of the world" (John 8 : 12), it is sober truth or 
wild self-conceit. If it is self-conceit, Jesus is 
abnormal and not the spiritual and moral leader of 
the race. He falls from his high pedestal to the 
ground and beneath the ground. If it is truth, he 
is more than man. No mere man in his senses 
would say it of himself. Nor could it be true of 
any mere man. If Jesus is only man and said 
that, he is beneath contempt. If he is God and 
said it, he is above praise. There is no middle 
ground. " I am the resurrection, and the life " 
(John n : 25). Here again the same argument 
holds. " For as the Father raiseth up the dead, 
and quickeneth them ; even so the Son quickeneth 
whom he will" (John 5 : 21). "Ye are from be- 
neath ; I am from above : ye are of this world ; I 
am not of this world" (John 8 : 23). " All power 
is given me in heaven and earth" (Matt. 28 : 18). 
What sane man could speak these words if he 
were only man? Jesus expressly healed the para- 
lytic let down through the roof that his enemies 
might "know that the Son of man hath power on 
earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9 : 6). The Pharisees 
had rightly said that God alone could forgive sins. 
Moreover, all other men are conscious of sin. But 



30 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

Jesus never betrays the slightest consciousness of 
guilt of any kind. There are varieties of religious 
experience among men, but all agree on this point : 
" We have all sinned and come short of the glory 
of God." But not so Jesus. On the other hand 
he repeatedly claims perfect obedience to the will 
of the Father. " My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me " (John 4 : 34). He came to save 
sinners and had no sin of his own. This is an 
anomaly in human experience that cannot be ex- 
plained, save on the assumption of the divinity of 
Jesus. In the beginning of his ministry Jesus said 
to Nathanael : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye 
shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of 
God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
man" (John 1 : 51). He will make the prophecy 
on his trial that "the Son of man shall sit on 
the right hand of the power of God " (Luke 22 : 
69), and he will be seen " coming in the clouds of 
heaven" (Mark 14 : 62). 

The incarnation is the first glorious fact in the 

life of Jesus on earth. It is a mighty fact fraught 

with mystery. Jesus could, of course, 

Jesus' sa y nothing about the mystery ot 

withManSa his birth - How much his mother 
told him or the Father revealed to 

him we do not know. He called Joseph father, 

but he early knew that God was his true Father, 



THE SON 31 

and at the age of twelve says u My Father " when 
speaking of God (Luke 2:51). This is not the 
place to discuss the virgin birth since Jesus naturally 
did not do so. But the words of Jesus are in har- 
mony with what Matthew and Luke do say directly, 
and what John implies and Paul also, though not 
so strongly. In calling himself Son of God and 
Son of Man he presents the two-fold nature. He 
was divine and human. The feeling of Jesus 
toward his mother was loving and tender. In call- 
ing her " Woman " at Cana during the wedding 
feast he was not harsh (John 2 : 4), for on the 
cross also he addressed her thus when he com- 
mended her to the care of John (John 19 : 26). 
He did make her understand, after he entered 
upon his Messianic work, that she was not to con- 
trol his actions further. Henceforth the Father 
and the Spirit were to direct his way. But Jesus 
was not ashamed to call us brethren and friends. 
His favorite title for himself was "the Son of 
Man." He joyfully acknowledged his humanity, 
which was real and no mere phantom. The term 
itself is linked to the phrase "a Son of Man " in 
the book of Daniel. Jesus seems to have used it 
to express his real humanity, the representative 
character of his relation to men and the ideal 
character of the true man. Hence he submitted 
to baptism, though he had no sins of which to 



32 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

repent (Matt. 3:15). Hence he endured temptation 

and gained power and sympathy. So he grew 

weak and weary, and had at times not where to 

lay his head (Luke 9:58). So he went down into 

the valley of trial and at the very bottom cried 

out : " O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup 

pass from me : nevertheless not as I will, but as 

thou wilt" (Matt. 26 : 39). Out of the darkness 

he exclaimed : " My God, my God, why hast thou 

forsaken me?" (Matt. 27 146.) It cost all this 

for Christ to be a man, but he gladly became flesh 

for our sakes (2 Cor. 8 : 9). 

When did our Lord first become aware that he 

was the Messiah, the Son of God ? Some say 

that he knew as much even as a babe 

The Messianic as he ever did. Others say that he 

Self-Conscious- did not know that he was the Mes . 

ness of Jesus . , #11 , . . , _ , 

siah till the voice of the Father so 

greeted him at his baptism. Both views are clearly 
wrong, though we must be careful not to dogma- 
tize. When twelve years old Jesus said to Joseph 
and Mary in the temple : " Wist ye not that I 
must be in my Fathers house?" (Luke 2 : 50). 
Here he evidently is conscious that he sustains a 
peculiar relation to the Father not held by others. 
When he first grew into that consciousness it is 
idle to speculate. He did grow in wisdom as he 
grew in stature (Luke 2 : 52). Here is an in- 



THE SON 33 

soluble mystery, how the Son of God could grow 
in wisdom ; but we must be content with our igno- 
rance. We do not even know how our spirits can 
dwell in our bodies. Doubtless the consciousness 
of his own deity grew with the years. He knows 
that he is the Messiah when he comes to John the 
Baptist and never falters in that conviction to the 
end. Jesus was no opportunist, seeking to pander 
to the whims of the populace. He had the high 
moral courage to be the true Messiah at the cost 
of his life rather than be the Messiah of the crowd 
with continued human life and an earthly crown. 
He was, likewise, not a disappointed man. He 
had full in view the issues at stake and the import 
of his message and the outcome. He will say to 
the woman at the well : " I that speak unto thee 
am he " (John 4 : 26). He will say to Caiaphas 
at last under oath : " I am he " (Mark 14 : 62). 

He loved to speak of himself as sent by the 
Father into the world (John 6 : 38 f., 57; 12 : 49). 
He was anointed for his mission, 
and hence was the Messiah, the Jesus 
Anointed One. He did not con- H^M^sTof 
sider himself an accident, an adven- 
turer, a piece of driftwood in the centuries, or 
even the result of a natural evolutionary process. 
He was come to bear witness to the truth in a 
world of lies (John 18 : 37). He was come as the 



34 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

light of the world in the midst of darkness (John 
8 : 12; 12 : 46). He was come as the good shep- 
herd to care for the sheep and to keep off the 
wolves and the hirelings (John 10 : 1-18). He 
was a physician in the midst of the sick (Matt. 
9:12). He came to save the lost in a world of 
sin (Luke 19 : 10). He came to give life in the 
midst of death (John 4 : 13 f.; 6 : 55-58). He was 
indeed the water of life and the bread from heaven. 
In a word, he came " to preach the gospel to the 
poor ; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recover- 
ing of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them 
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year 
of the Lord" (Luke 4 : 18). He was ready to 
do this if it cost his life, as he knew it would. 
He came "to give his life a ransom for many" 
(Matt. 20 : 28). 

It was the Father's love for the world that 

caused him to send the Son into the world (John 

3 : 16). At every turn Jesus mani- 

Ohrist's Love fested his own pity and love for a 

, ^ , -, ruined race. He was known as the 
the World . 

friend of publicans and sinners and 

defended his search for the worst sinners. He 

had the shepherd heart that would go out after 

the lost lamb on the mountain. He offered the 

water of life to all who would come and drink 



THE SON 35 

(John 7 : 37), rest to all the weary and the sin- 
sick and the heavy laden (Matt. 11 : 28 f.). 

He linked his teaching to that of the Old Tes- 
tament, and distinctly denied that he came to 
destroy the law and the prophets, 
but rather to fulfil. To fulfil is to J ? sus ' Teach - 
make full. He came to complete, ld Testament 
to realize, to go farther in the same 
direction. Where the Old Testament was sym- 
bolical, he was the reality. Where the Old Testa- 
ment was ceremonial, he was spiritual and ethical. 
Where the Old Testament was type and shadow, 
he gave the substance. Where the Old Testament 
was negative, Christ was positive. Where the Old 
Testament was a concession to the weakness of 
human nature, Jesus struck off the outer shell and 
went to the heart of the matter. But Jesus ever 
exalted the Old Testament, even when he said, " I 
say unto you," in contrast with its commands. It 
was not a contrast in kind, but in degree. He 
caught the spirit of the Old Testament and re- 
leased men from the bondage of the letter. So 
the Sermon on the Mount does not decry the Old 
Testament, but exalts it. "Hate thine enemy " 
(Matt. 5 : 43) is not in the Old Testament, but is 
the teaching of the rabbis. Jesus brought life and 
immortality to light, " the light of the gospel of the 
glory of Christ." 



36 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

But Jesus does set himself against the teachers 
of the time, who had covered up the spirit of the 
Old Testament with their traditions 
e urren an( j j e g en( j s anc j hair-splitting theo- 
ries. The theology of Jesus runs 
counter to the theology of his day at a number of 
essential points. He had to expose the hypocrisy 
of the Pharisees, their mere formalism, their literal- 
ism as to the Sabbath, their burdensome rules 
about everyday life, their worldly-mindedness, 
their error as to a temporal kingdom, their 
spiritual blindness. In a word : " Except your 
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the 
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter 
the kingdom of heaven " (Matt. 5 : 20). This 
necessary antagonism of Jesus lashed the Phari- 
sees into a fury and they early began to plot for 
his death. They could not brook such teaching. 
He was a heretic and must be exterminated. 

Jesus did not falter. He rose above the false 

clamor of approval from the people and the din of 

opposition from the Jerusalem con- 

The Sense of spiracy. He knew that he was the 

in Jesus ^ on °^ ^ 0( * anc * ^ a( ^ a messa S e ^ or 
men. He brushed aside the cob- 
webs of tradition and rabbinical technicalities and 
gave men the truth. It was the very breath of 
heaven, and men marveled at his words. He spoke 



THE SON 37 

not as the scribes, but with authority. It was a 
new day in Palestine when the truth could be 
turned loose on its own merits without the support 
of some great name to guarantee its genuineness. 
The modern era began with Jesus in more senses 
than one. The Dark Ages in after years was an 
effort to hold down the light. His kingdom was 
truth and he could stand and look down on Pilate's 
timid cowardice. Jesus dared call men to himself. 
"I am the truth " (John 14 : 6), he said. We think 
of truth as a system. Jesus incarnated it and we 
can grasp truth in its fulness only as we get close 
to him. This is the fault with one-sided scientists 
and narrow theologians. He invited men to come 
and take his yoke, come to school to him, for his 
yoke is easy and his burden is light. The lessons 
are not hard after we get a start. And we can sit 
like Mary at the Teacher's feet and learn of him. 
This is not conceit in Jesus, but the natural un- 
folding of what he was to those who needed him. 

He had much to give as a Teacher. The Father 
revealed to him the wisdom of heaven. He was 
under the guidance of the Holy 

Spirit. He was the Son of God. The * n _ owled S e 

_ „ . of Jesus 

Peter finally was able to say to him : 

"Lord, thou knowest all things" (John 21:17), and 

it was true. And yet he grew in knowledge, was 

surprised at various times, and on one occasion 



38 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

said that he knew not when the day of the end of 
the world would be (Mark 13 : 32). Here we con- 
front a mystery past our unraveling. It is one 
thing not to know and another to know wrongly. 
If Jesus had human limitations in his knowledge 
on certain points, and so did not speak on them, 
we may not call him in error when he does speak. 
Least of all may we say that Jesus was ignorant 
of the Old Testament, for here he expressly claimed 
to have new light and chided the teachers of his 
time with their ignorance and error. Nor must we 
let our own ignorance on this subject accent un- 
duly the supposed ignorance of Jesus. 

The central teaching of Jesus was his death and 

resurrection. If we wish to learn the theology of 

Jesus, we must follow his lead. He 

The Central is his own best interpreter. He laid 

Thought of accen t on his miracles and urged that 

they corroborated his claims. But 

they were only means to an end. He asserted that 

he was the Son of God and had come to save men 

by his death if they believed in him. He would give 

proof of his Messianic claims and of the power of 

his atoning death by rising from the dead. He had 

power to lay down his life and he had power to take 

it again. He would give his life for the sheep. He 

would give his life a ransom for many. His blood 

would be shed for the remission of sins (Matt. 



THE SON 39 

26 : 28). And if he was lifted up, he would draw 
all men unto him (John 12 : 32). It was a volun- 
tary death and a conscious sacrifice. He knew 
what he was doing and went to the cross with high 
and holy purpose. If he faltered for a moment 
in Gethsemane, that was due to the weakness of 
the flesh, and it was only for a moment. We 
must put the accent where Jesus does. He was 
born at all only to die for our sins. Else he had 
no message to teach that was other than ethical 
and ineffective. Else he could not be our King. 
Else he could not be our Saviour. Else he could 
not be our Priest. Else he could not be our 
Advocate. But for his atoning death, he would 
have been only another of the many teachers of 
the world. The blood of Christ makes possible 
the work of the Spirit. But his death on the cross 
and his resurrection from the grave were long in 
his heart and on his lips. It all fell on dull ears. 
But thanks be to God for the victory in a crucified 
and risen Saviour. Jesus had no mere mechanical 
conception of his atoning death. He clearly taught 
that he gave his life a ransom in place of those who 
were saved from sin (Matt. 20 : 28). But that he 
perceived the vital and moral aspects of this sacri- 
fice is plain from John 12 : 24 f. His course was 
in harmony with nature. 

The cross is now to us in some manner what it 



40 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

was to Jesus, our glory and our crown. Life is linked 
with death. By his death he won the right to save 
us from sin. Shall we gain life in Christ ? He can 
give us life abundantly if we are willing to live. The 
hardest word that Jesus had for his generation was : 
" Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life " 
(John 5 : 40). Jesus is lord of life and conqueror of 
death. When the Galilean multitudes turned away 
from Jesus after they learned that he was merely 
a spiritual Messiah, he turned to the disciples : 
" Will ye also go away? " It was Peter who said : 
" Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the 
words of eternal life. And we have believed and 
know that thou art the Holy One of God" (John 
6 : 68 f.). Peter indeed seems to have considered 
going with the multitude who had left Christ, but 
on the whole he had decided to hold fast to him. 
His loyalty was the result of reflection, and not 
mere impulse. 



CHAPTER III 

SIN 

"To give his life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20 : 28). 

There is not much said by Jesus about sin on 
its theological side, though he has much to say 
about special acts of sin. Jesus was practical 
in his teaching about the sins of men. But the 
dark shadow of sin rested over his earthly life. It 
was in the air about him, in the lives of men and 
women all around him, in the hearts of all whom 
he met. It was repulsive to his holy nature, and 
yet he did not shrink from close contact with sinful 
men. Satan sought to besmirch Jesus with sin at 
the start of his public work and never gave up the 
hope of doing so, but tried every convenient oppor- 
tunity. He attacked Christ by every approach 
possible. In fact Christ sought out the most sinful 
classes in order to help them, and was not ashamed 
to be known as the friend of publicans and sinners 
(Matt, n : 19). But if he had sinned himself, he 
could not have saved others. His enemies jeered 
at him as he hung on the cross : " He saved others ; 
himself he cannot save." That was literally true. 

41 



42 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

There was no doubt in the mind of Jesus 
about the fact of sin. He was no dilettante re- 
former who had come with some 
e Jieality o r0S e-water nostrum to cover up the 
heinousness of sin. Men have ex- 
hausted their ingenuity to escape the fact or the 
consequences of sin. Some deny that sin is, as 
does the Christian Scientist. Or it is said that sin 
is not so very bad after all and we can manage it 
without the help of Christ. This is like the con- 
sumptive that is always going to get well without 
doing anything. Or we are all saved by the mere 
fact that Christ has become man. His incarna- 
tion saves the race. A comfortable dream is this, 
possible only by disregarding the facts of life and 
the words of Jesus whose life is leaned on for 
salvation. 

A weakened sense of sin is the curse of our 
time. Jesus had the same conception of his mis- 
sion that was expressed by John the Baptist, 
when he cried : " Behold the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world " (John i : 29). 
It is the Lamb as a sacrifice that takes away sin. 
His name, Jesus, was given to him because he will 
save his people from their sins (Matt. 1 : 21). He 
came to save sinners, not the so-called righteous 
(Matt. 9 : 13). They were sinners too, but were 
too proud to own it, like some people now. Let it 



sin 43 

go at their own estimate of themselves for the 
present. Here are sinners, who know that they 
are sinners, and these Christ came to save, the lost 
sheep. He will not have to lose time in convin- 
cing these that they are sinners and lost. No 
wonder the publicans and sinners came to hear 
him (Luke 15:1). We have the same situation 
to-day. The self-righteous hypocrites took the 
indictment of Christ as an insult, but the publicans 
knew that they were sinners. The hard field to- 
day is among the self-satisfied. The coming of 
Jesus quickened the consciousness of men as to sin. 
" If I had not come, they had not had sin " (John 
1 5 : 22), i. e.y not so great sin as they do have. And 
yet Jesus had no consciousness of sin himself. In 
fact, he challenged his enemies to find sin in him: 
" Which of you convinceth me of sin ? " (John 8 : 
46). Every sane man is conscious of sin, and is a 
hypocrite if he denies it. Therefore Jesus was 
God and not mere man. The Holy Spirit will 
convict the world of sin (John 16:8), and the 
preacher is helpless to move men till this personal 
conviction of sin takes place. The crying need of 
our day is a sharper accent on the reality of sin 
and the pressure of sin on the human soul. One's 
theory of God and sin decides his theology and his 
life. Tell me your view of God and sin and I can 
fill out the rest. The Pharisee stood and prayed 



44 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

with himself (not with God) and gave the Lord 
some information about his own goodness and 
superiority over others. The poor convicted pub- 
lican with bowed head asked : " God be merciful 
to me the sinner " (Luke 18 : 13). 

As might be expected, Jesus deals with sin as a 
universal fact and does not seek to explain its 

origin. He says nothing about 
The Origin of Adam and Eve and the firgt sin that 

Sin 

entered into human hearts. He 

does not discuss the federal or the natural head- 
ship of Adam. But he treats all men as sinners 
and as responsible for their sin. " If ye were 
blind, ye should have no sin" (John 9 141). But 
we all have conscience, a sense of right and moral 
responsibility. " Whosoever committeth sin is the 
servant of sin " (John 8 : 34). Thus he implied 
that the Jews were slaves of sin and offered to 
make them free indeed (John 8 : 36). Yea, he 
said : " If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall 
die in your sins " (John 8 : 24). How God could 
permit sin to exist, Jesus does not say. He has 
left that for modern theologians and philosophers. 
He has come to set us free from the bondage of 
sin and that is better. 

The modern theory of evolution is not neces- 
sarily out of harmony with the essential fact of 
the fall of man, the inherited sin of the race, 



sin 45 

which lies beyond the coming of Christ to save 
a lost and ruined world. Jesus calls Satan the 
father of lies (John 8 : 44), and he is by implica- 
tion the father of all sin. The reality and per- 
sonality of Satan as the king of the kingdom of 
evil, Jesus clearly teaches. No exegetical methods 
can make the devil a mere personification of the 
evil principle set forth in the teaching of Christ. 
Satan desired to sift Simon as he had tried Jesus 
and Judas. The same thing is true as to demons, 
the agents of Satan. The words of Jesus are so 
numerous and so explicit that the existence of de- 
mons is bound to be admitted. The possession of 
men by demons is not mere disease, but the violent 
exhibition of Satanic power in an effort to dominate 
men. Demons may possess men now for aught 
we know. The devil can change with the fashions. 
Jesus makes no formal discussion of sin, but we 
can get his idea of the character of sin from a 

variety of arguments. He looks 

v • The Nature of 

upon it not as a mere disease or in- g . 

firmity. The quality of sin in the 
mind of Jesus is seen when he says to the Phari- 
sees : " O generation of vipers ! how can ye, being 
evil, speak good things ? " (Matt. 12 : 34.) Aliena- 
tion from the Father is the worst effect of sin. 
There is a break between God and men, and sin 
has caused it. This is the work of Jesus, to heal 



46 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

that breach. But he does it not by patching up 
sin, rather by overcoming it. Sin makes men 
blind so that " seeing they may see, and not 
perceive " (Mark 4:12). The deadening power 
of sin affects the whole man. This is what total 
depravity means, not that there is no good in man. 
But all his faculties are tainted by sin, as memory, 
imagination, appetite, ambition. The heart is 
hardened ; some hearts are like the wayside, some 
like the stony ground, and some like the thorny 
ground. Men are dull of hearing, with closed eyes, 
with heart waxed gross, and they do not under- 
stand the mysteries of the kingdom. Such a heart 
cannot believe. Once the Master cried out : " O 
faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I 
be with you?'' (Luke 9 141.) The unbelief of 
such hardened hearts taxed the patience of the 
gentle Christ. In some cases Jesus actually mar- 
veled at the unbelief which he met. This is the 
normal state of the human heart as the result of 
sin. Distrust of God has taken the place of love 
and confidence. 

Sin has its seat in the heart where are the issues 
of life. The moral life with Jesus consists in the 
heart life, not in the mere outward observance. 
The keenest denunciation that the Master used 
was directed against the hypocrites who used the 
livery of heaven to serve the devil in. These men 



sin 47 

outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, like whited 
sepulchres full of dead men's bones. The note of 
genuineness is struck by Jesus with great power 
and this insistence aroused the keenest hostility of 
the Pharisees. God wanted heart service, not 
mere lip service. It is what comes from within 
that defiles the man. " Wherefore think ye evil 
in your hearts ? " (Matt. 9 : 4.) " The light of the 
body is the eye," and "if thine eye be evil thy 
whole body shall be full of darkness " (Matt. 
6 : 22 f.). 

Dr. James Stalker, in his recent Gay Lectures 
at Louisville, pungently divided Christ's denuncia- 
tion of sin into the sin of the publican, the sin of 
the Sadducee, the sin of the Pharisee. The pub- 
lican was guilty of sensual sin, the Sadducee of 
pride, the Pharisee of hypocrisy. Jesus did not 
condone the first, but found him easier to reach 
than the proud Sadducee. The hypocritical Phari- 
see he unmercifully condemned. 

With a nature thus deranged it is not strange 
that men are subject to all sorts of temptations. 
Jesus knew the power of temptation in his own 
life and understood full well the weakness of men. 
He urged the disciples to pray, " Lead us not into 
temptation" (Matt. 6:13). In Gethsemane he 
felt the full force of the tempter's power and he 



48 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

besought the disciples : " Pray that ye enter not 
into temptation " (Luke 22 : 40). But he was 
insistent that we resist the tempter to the end. 

Besides unbelief and hypocrisy our Lord de- 
nounced other prominent sins in the people of his 
time. The pride of the rabbis, who loved to be 
called "rabbi" and to have prominent seats, ex- 
cited his indignation. He told many parables to 
illustrate the power of covetousness over the hearts 
of those who laid up treasure for themselves and 
yet were not rich toward God ; who thought that 
life consisted in the abundance of the things that 
one possessed. Jesus bluntly called such men 
"fools/' They missed the point of life. 

Captious criticism likewise called forth the re- 
proof of Christ. He called attention to the fact 
that the critic invited criticism on himself by 
assuming such a r61e. People in glass houses 
should not throw stones, and those with beams in 
their eyes had better not hunt for motes in other 
people's eyes. It was a materialistic and worldly 
age to which Jesus spoke, one that loved the mam- 
mon of unrighteousness and wished to have credit 
with God also. Anger, murder, adultery, deceit, 
theft, and many other sins were scathingly at- 
tacked by Christ. Like John the Baptist he 
exposed the sins of the men of the time and held 
each man up before the mirror of the truth. 



sin 49 

They did not believe on him because he told them 
the truth. Flattery and fawning tickle the fancy, 
but are unthinkable in connection with Jesus. 

But we do not get Christ's idea of sin till we 
go with him into Gethsemane and hear him cry, 
" O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
away from me " (Matt. 26 : 39). Then we know 
how sinful he thought sin was. He shrank from 
the cup that he had to drink if men were to be 
saved. Go and stand by the cross and hear him 
say at the conclusion of three hours of darkness, 
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " 
(Matt. 27 : 46.) As we see him hanging here 
regarded as sin by the Father, in some sense 
deserted by the Father, we may form some idea of 
what the Father and the Son thought of sin. Yes, 
and we can see the lengths to which sin will go. 
It crucified the Lord of glory, the only good man 
who ever trod the earth. 

Jesus accentuated the individual man. He dis- 
covered the worth of the soul. In the world of 
class and caste the individual is 
worth little. " How much, then, is The of P g^ lty 
a man of more value than a sheep ?" 
(Matt. 12 : 12) he asked. It was not an idle ques- 
tion. If a man is better than a sheep, respect 
human rights and treat a man better than a sheep. 
Is that true on your farm, in your factory, your 

D 



50 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

store, your mine, your home ? Yes, and let the 
man realize his own worth. Stoicism taught and 
practised suicide and cheapened human life. 
" What shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul ? " (Matt. 16 : 26.) Jesus placed the human 
soul over against the whole material universe. 

Moral responsibility is large in the teaching of 
Christ. Guilt is written on every man's heart. 
Death, spiritual death, is the condition of the 
unsaved. They are dead. " Leave the dead to 
bury their own dead " (Luke 9 : 60). The penalty 
for guilt is inexorable. Punishment is not simply 
corrective and temporary, but chiefly retributive 
and eternal. God " is able to destroy both soul 
and body in hell" (Matt. 10 : 28). Yes, "and 
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish " 
(Luke 13:5). The final punishment is eternal 
with the devil and his angels. " For what shall a 
man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, 
and forfeit his own life?" (Matt. 16 : 26.) That 
is the point ; lose his own soul. Lose himself, 
Luke has it (9 : 25). The soul is the man's real 
self. That is his life. It is pitiful to care so 
much for the bodily life and seek to save that and 
lose the real life. God is not unjust to punish 
sin. Not to do so would upset the moral uni- 
verse. Ethical standards would fall. There would 
be no wrong nor right. Sin is eternal and relent- 



SIN 51 

less, and the punishment must be correspondingly 
eternal. 

Is there a remedy ? " Is there a balm in Gil- 
ead ? Is there a physician there?" (Jer. 8 : 22.) 
If so, what is the balm ? The 
heathen had tried philosophy, and ® ^ Q J 
it brought many noble ethical pre- 
cepts and beautiful ideals. The trouble lay in the 
disparity between precept and performance. The 
heathen world had wandered away from God into 
the Serbonian bog of polytheism. The Jews had 
special leading from the hand of God, but they 
too hungered for new gods. The law as peda- 
gogue had with difficulty kept them in guard till 
Christ, the Schoolmaster, should come. Type had 
no efficacy in itself. Shadow could not act as 
substance. Ceremony and ritual only symbolized 
other things. There was saving truth in the Old 
Testament, for the spiritual life is presented there, 
and the sacrifices pointed to the great atoning 
Sacrifice. But the letter finally put the spirit in 
bondage. When Christ came, the Jews could not 
see the spirit for the letter. They no longer saw 
the spirit in the letter. The world was helpless 
and hopeless. 

Our Lord was not surprised at his death, for 
he knew from the first that he must die. He had 
come to die for our sins and in our stead. His 



52 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

hour was ever before him. "The Son of man 
must suffer many things and be slain and raised 
the third day " (Luke 9 : 22). They will crucify 
the Son of Man, he said. But " thus it behooved 
the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the 
third day " (Luke 24 : 46). " Except a corn of 
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 
alone " (John 12 : 24). •• I lay down my life that 
I may take it again " (John 10:17). He came to 
give his life a ransom for many. And it will not 
be in vain. "And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12 : 32). 
" For God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have eternal life M 
(John 3 : 16). "For this cause came I unto this 
hour" (John 12 : 27). "This is my blood of the 
covenant, which is shed for many unto remission 
of sins" (Matt. 26 : 28). "Nevertheless, not my 
will, but thine be done " (Luke 22 : 42). " It is 
finished" (John 19 : 30). Thus Jesus spoke of 
his atoning death for human sin. Thus he won 
the right to offer life to sinners on the basis of 
his death. 

But there is one thing more that is needed. 
This atonement makes possible reconciliation with 
the Father; was, indeed, prompted by the Father's 
love; but actual reconciliation is not yet accom- 



sin 53 

plished in any given case till the sinner comes 
back to the Father with confession of sin. The 
prodigal son came and said, " Father, / have 
sinned 91 (Luke 15 : 21). That is the hard word 
to say, but repentance is essential, for God will 
not out of hand forgive a rebellious sinner. Here 
we pass deeper into the mysteries of grace. The 
sinful soul is dead and cannot turn to God for life. 
Yet we must be born again or we perish, Jesus 
said to Nicodemus (John 3 : 3). The impulse to 
life must come from God who is life, and life 
reaches death from outside. But there must like- 
wise be the spiritual response to the new life. 
The delicate spiritual process that we call regen- 
eration from God's side and repentance or con- 
version from man's side is not fully unfolded. 
These are, however, blessed facts in the Christian's 
life. The essential thing for us to know is that 
forgiveness of sin is possible in Christ. This 
Jesus offers us and this we can find nowhere else. 
No wonder there is joy in the presence of the 
angels over one sinner that repents. 

What is the remedy that Christ offers to a 
hopeless sinner ? Is it a new system of doctrine ? 
A new philosophy ? A new State ? A new book ? 
A new organization ? A new church ? A new 
ritual ? A new preacher ? A new idea ? He 
wrote no book. He advanced many new ideas as 



54 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

others had done ; he proclaimed glorious doctrines ; 
he gathered a group of disciples around him. He 
set up anew the kingdom of God. But in none of 
these plans do we find freedom from sin. Jesus 
offers himself as the Saviour from sin. He is the 
remedy. He lived a sinless life, and offered him- 
self as the Lamb without blemish. He grappled 
with sin at close quarters. With a perfect life he 
offered a perfect sacrifice, and the Father is well 
pleased. So the Son comes to the sinner and 
offers himself as Saviour. " Ye believe in God ; 
believe also in me" (John 14 : 1). "Come unto 
me" (Matt. 11 : 28). " And whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die " (John 1 1 : 26). 
" If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free 
indeed " (John 8 : 36). " I came that they may 
have life" (John 10 : 10). He offers life to us 
"abundantly." We begin to live in Christ and 
we go on living in Christ. With Jesus ethical 
conduct is the fruit of life, not life the fruit of 
ethical precepts or conduct. This is what sets 
Jesus apart from all else. He gives us life. The 
old flower of virtue has a new fragrance and 
the fruit a new flavor, for it grows in the soil of 
life, not death. 

When the Greeks came to Philip and said re- 
spectfully, "Sir, we would see Jesus" (John 12 : 
21), Philip did not dare comply with the courteous 



sin 55 

request. Was it -regular ? Was it orthodox for 
Gentiles to meet Jesus ? He interviewed the usually 
wise Andrew on the grave problem. It was more 
than both could settle. They came to Jesus with 
this problem, but not, it seems, with the Greeks. 
The soul of Jesus was greatly troubled. He did not 
seek to unravel their technical pettifogging scruples. 
The cross would alone break down the middle 
wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. Jesus 
spoke about his death and struggled in prayer with 
the Father, who heard him and spoke to comfort 
him. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto myself " (John 12 : 32). 
When men come to us and ask for bread, do we 
give them a stone ? When they seek Jesus, do 
we give our theological system ? For orthodoxy, 
church, preacher, the Bible itself, will be stumbling- 
blocks if they come between the soul and Jesus. 
"Come unto me," he said, "and I will give you 
rest" (Matt. 11 : 28). 



CHAPTER IV 

THE KINGDOM 
•* Thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6 : 10). 

In selecting key-words around which to group 
the teachings of Jesus, the word kingdom is es- 
sential. This is the well-spring of human blessing. 
After the word sin the logical and the necessary 
word is the kingdom, for thus is Christ the remedy 
for sin. He gives us himself and he is life. Sin 
results in death and Jesus offers the water of life. 
When we take him the kingdom of God enters us 
and we enter it. The kingdom comes with the 
King. The King comes when we let him rule 
over us as Lord and Saviour. 

" The kingdom of heaven is at hand " (Matt. 

3 : 2), John the Baptist announced, for the King 

was at hand. The King himself took 

The Theme U p th e same cry. " Repent ye ; for 

Teaching t ' ie kingdom of heaven is at hand " 

(Matt. 4 : 17). Thus Jesus began 

his Galilean ministry, vitally linking his message 

with that of John the Baptist, for he said : " The 

time is fulfilled" (Matt. 4 : 17; Mark 1 : 15). 

56 



THE KINGDOM 57 

When the Twelve were sent out on their preaching 

tour Jesus said: "As ye go, preach, saying, The 

kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 10 : 7). He 

laid upon his disciples the burden of proclaiming 

the kingdom. When the Seventy were sent forth 

Jesus said : " Say unto them, The kingdom of God 

is come nigh unto you " (Luke 10 : 9). If the 

message was rejected, "howbeit know this, that 

the kingdom of God is come nigh," even if these 

do reject it. " The gospel of God "is " the gospel 

of the kingdom." In Matthew we nearly always 

have the term, kingdom of heaven, but in the 

other Gospels, kingdom of God. In John kingdom 

of God occurs only twice, but in a very important 

connection (John 3 : 3, 5) in the conversation with 

Nicodemus about the new birth. Eternal life in the 

Gospel of John is the phrase that is equivalent to 

the kingdom of God in the synoptics. Such was 

the great theme of Jesus' preaching and teaching, 

a theme that quickened the pulse of every Jew who 

heard it discussed by the king Messiah. 

In the Acts and the Epistles the expression 

does not occur so often as in the synoptic Gospels. 

It still exists and in the same sense, 

but is largely displaced by such The Ovigm 
, , , . . £ .., of the Term 

words as gospel, salvation, faith, 

life, and church in the general sense. It is a com- 
prehensive and unifying term for the gospel prin- 



5 8 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

ciple and state, and was used more by Jesus than 
in the apostolic time, when Christianity was more 
highly organized and analyzed. In modern times, 
until lately, Christian writers have largely dis- 
used it, perhaps owing to the growth of demo- 
cratic ideas and an instinctive reluctance to use a 
monarchical term for Christianity in its essential 
idea. The later extension of the word church in 
more recent times to great general organizations 
also had a tendency toward the disuse of the 
term. But new accent has now come on the 
teaching of Jesus, and that accent has naturally 
brought to the front again the word kingdom, for 
it was the ruling word of Christ about his message. 
In the Old Testament an everlasting kingdom is 
promised to David. " I will establish his kingdom. 
He shall build an house for my name, and I will 
establish the throne of his kingdom forever. . . 
Thine house and thy kingdom shall be made sure 
forever before thee." So Nathan spoke to David. 
The words were understood to mean an earthly 
monarchy that took the place of the theocracy that 
had existed till Saul was made king in answer to 
the clamor of the people (2 Sam. 7:13, 16). Even 
in Ps. 89 it is not clear that it is a spiritual king- 
dom whose perpetuity is guaranteed. " I have 
sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will 
I establish forever and build up thy throne to all 



THE KINGDOM 59 

generations" (Ps. 89 : 3 f.). In Dan. 7 : 14, 18, 27 
this everlasting kingdom is promised to the saints, 
who will come from all nations and tongues. It is 
thus a universal kingdom and not merely one com- 
posed of Jews. It is universal, and not merely 
Jewish. There is thus a gradual expansion in the 
use of the term till we find it in the mouth of John 
the Baptist and Jesus as the comprehensive term 
for the work and rule of God in the hearts of men. 
With John and Jesus the term kingdom has the 
spiritual, not the national, idea. It is worth noting 
that nearly all the distinctive words used by Jesus 
in Matt. 16 : 18 occur in Ps. 89, though not in 
exactly the same sense. Thus we have " build " 
in Ps. 89 : 4, "ecclesia" in ver. 5, " Christos " in 
ver. 38, " hades" in ver. 48. The theme is the 
same, the perpetuity of the kingdom ; the one 
Davidic, the other Messianic. 

We must take all the senses of the word or else 
make exceptions. As Jesus used it, kingdom 
means essentially the reign of God 

in the heart. Sometimes the idea Y *™™ i ens f 
_ , . of the Word 

is possession or kingly authority or 

kingship ; sometimes the idea is rather that of the 

subjects of the rule of God, but never does Jesus 

use it in the sense of territory or country. He does 

not seem to have the idea of organization in the 

word as was common in other connections (Matt. 



60 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

12 : 25). Sometimes two concepts will be present 
at once, as authority and rule, or rule and the sub- 
jects. Reign is the best single English equivalent, 
but the world has become familiar with the term 
kingdom. In the Old Testament theocracy God 
is king of the Jews in the literal sense of earthly 
ruler, for they had no other king. After Saul was 
made king God is still the king in the higher 
spiritual sense, and the people who serve him are 
the subjects of his kingdom. There was thus a 
phrase ready at hand for our Master's use. So 
likewise the word Israel had developed from the 
literal sense to the spiritual also. 

The Assyrian and the Babylonian captivity in- 
augurated a long period of servitude for the Jews. 
Save during the glorious Maccabean 

The Popular era i^y ne ver recovered independ- 
Jewish Idea of TT ,, r , 1 , . -. 

the Kingdom ence ' Hence the llteral kingdom 
of the Jews did cease. The hope of 

national independence then became the guiding 

star in Jewish politics and theology. This hope 

appears in the numerous Jewish writings of the 

time, especially in the apocalypses. After the 

Romans overcame the Jews, freedom from Roman 

rule centered in the coming of the Messiah. 

The Messianic hope of the Old Testament prophets 

turned to a glorious Jewish king who should 

set up his kingdom in Jerusalem, drive out the 



THE KINGDOM 6 1 

Romans and conquer the world, and introduce a 
millennium by making all men Jews. This was the 
teaching of the Jews of the time. The greater the 
oppression of their enemies became, the more 
strongly this hope seized the Pharisees and the 
masses. When John the Baptist proclaimed on 
the banks of the Jordan, " Repent, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand M (Matt. 3 : 2), this is 
what the people understood him to mean. The 
hour for Jewish deliverance had arrived. The 
Messiah was now at hand to restore Israel to its 
pristine glory and to spread Judaism all over the 
world. Certainly John the Baptist had no such 
narrow idea of the kingdom of God. " Repent," 
he said, not " Gather an army." John was a student 
of the Old Testament rather than of rabbinical 
theology, and his teaching is in the spirit and 
power of the Old Testament prophets, of whom 
he was the last. And he was full of the Holy 
Spirit. He was the herald of the kingdom, and 
spoke just before the full fruition of his own 
glorious words. He surpasses us in inherent 
greatness, but we surpass him in richness of op- 
portunity. He was in the dawn and we are in the 
day. He had God's message for the times, not 
merely man's message from the times. John 
understood the nature of the Messianic kingdom 
and Jesus did not teach a Pharisaic kingdom. 



62 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

Was there no kingdom of God before Jesus 

began to preach ? Surely so, but the rule of God 

in the hearts of men was on such a 

When Did limited scale before this time, that 

Begin? * n a true sense ^ e kingdom could 
be said to begin with Jesus. The 
new epoch in the kingdom amounted in effect to 
a new start. " The law and the prophets were 
until John " (Luke 16 : 16). He was a great mile- 
post in God's dealings with men. The shadow 
came before, but now the King himself is here, for 
Jesus as well as the Father is king in the king- 
dom. Hence John announced that the kingdom 
of God was at hand because the King had come. 

It is thus that Jesus himself spoke of the king- 
dom as still future in one sense. We shall discuss 
this point directly. But he also spoke of it as a 
present realization, as here already in the hearts of 
men, as the glorious fulfilment of God's promise 
to men, the long-expected Messianic dispensation. 
Hence he said that it was at hand, had in fact 
come already to some, was a ready blessing for all 
who would open their hearts to the King. The 
fact that Jesus was casting out demons by the 
Spirit of God was proof that the kingdom of God 
was already come (Matt. 12 : 28). The kingdom 
comes not as a great governmental organization 
is set up over men. The rather does the kingdom 



THE KINGDOM 63 

come with men one by one and spreads from soul 
to soul as the torch of the kingdom is passed on. 
Now at last the fire of God was burning in some 
souls, a fire that would burn on through the ages 
with mighty power. The kingdom of God had 
come among men. Some, though timid like Joseph 
of Arimathea, were yet " looking for the kingdom 
of God" (Mark 15 : 43). Others, though not far 
from the kingdom (Mark 12 : 34) may never have 
entered in. 

It is the kingdom of heaven, of God, the rule of 
God in the heart. It was a woful disappointment 
to the Jews to learn that Jesus was 
only going to establish a spiritual What Sort 
kingdom with a spiritual king, and j jA 
not an actual, visible rule in Jeru- 
salem. Satan had offered to make Jesus king of 
all the kingdoms of the world with all their glory. 
It was a fascinating temptation. Once the people, 
in a frenzy of enthusiasm beside the sea of Galilee, 
tried to make him go to Jerusalem and set up such 
a kingdom (John 6:15). We will "make" him 
king, they cried. But Jesus listened to God rather 
than to Satan and the people. He pushed both 
temptations from him, a thing that those religious 
leaders have not done who have combined Church 
and State from the days of Constantine, till Roger 
Williams proclaimed religious liberty for all men. 



64 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

The great ecclesiastical machine at Rome contro- 
verts the fundamental conceptions of Christ, that 
the kingdom is invisible and spiritual, not a tem- 
poral and visible organization. The Pharisees 
grew impatient with Jesus, and wished to force his 
hand about the kingdom and asked " when the 
kingdom of God cometh." His answer is signifi- 
cant for all time : " The kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo, 
here ! or, There ! for lo, the kingdom of God is 
within you" (Luke 17 : 20 f.). So the correct 
translation, not " among you." In one of the Oxy- 
rhynchus Sayings of Jesus exactly this construction 
occurs where the context makes " the kingdom of 
heaven within you" necessary. "You" here does 
not have to mean the unsaved Pharisees, but only 
those in whom the kingdom of God actually exists. 
In the mind of Christ the kingdom has a spiritual 
content. It is related to repentance and is a spir- 
itual experience. In a word, the kingdom of God 
signifies to a man the entrance upon and the enjoy- 
ment of eternal life. He carries the kingdom of 
God in his own bosom. He is enveloped in the 
riches of the reign of God. It is, indeed, God's 
good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Luke 
12 : 32); he has given us the very keys of the 
kingdom (Matt. 16 : 19), but in giving us the king- 
dom he has given us the bread of heaven, not 



THE KINGDOM 65 

earthly or ecclesiastical power. We have seen the 
kingdom come in power (Mark 9:1), but it is the 
power of the Holy Spirit, not of human authority. 
There are greater and less in the kingdom of God, 
but not as John and James supposed (Matt. 20 : 21). 
The high place will belong to him who is most 
like the Master in the spirit of service (Matt. 
5 : 19; 18 : 1, 4). This one is alone great in the 
kingdom of God. 

In giving the characteristics of those who are 
in the kingdom, in what we call the Beatitudes 
at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount 
(Matt. 5 : 3-12), Jesus laid emphasis on the inner 
state of the heart as the true source of happiness. 
" Happy are the poor in spirit" ; " happy are they 
that hunger and thirst after righteousness " ; 
" happy are the pure in heart," he said. It was a 
revolutionary and incomprehensible idea to the 
sacramental Pharisee and the materialistic Roman 
and intellectual Greek. Nobody thought this was 
happiness and few wanted it. But this is the 
very essence of Christianity. It does bring peace 
and happiness to the heart and so to the man, for 
the soul is the man. " Seek ye first the kingdom 
of God" (Matt. 6 : 33), said Jesus. This is the 
primal thing in time and rank. Fir£t the king- 
dom, then the righteousness ; first the kingdom, 
then earthly good. First the kingdom, then the 



66 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

local church. If no kingdom there is no use 
for the local church. This is what we call a re- 
generated church-membership. The local church 
is the great God-appointed agency for the spread 
of the kingdom, but it is not the kingdom and is 
not equal to the kingdom (not one and not all local 
churches). Jesus did not establish local churches 
as divine institutions, and then save people so that 
the churches could have members in them. He 
saved people, put the kingdom of God in them, 
and then put them in local churches to go to work 
for God. The local church is a regiment in the 
army and may have traitors in it. It is a fighting 
machine to fight the devil, however, and not be- 
lievers. The kingdom is the cause for which the 
local churches battle. The kingdom, then, is com- 
posed of all the saved who are ruled by Christ the 
Lord and who serve him. 

It is not strange that the words of Jesus were 
perverted by his enemies. These very men who 
should have been able to lead men into the king- 
dom, not simply were blind themselves to spiritual 
light, but they hindered those who wished to find 
God. They shut the door of the kingdom of 
heaven before men (Matt. 23 : 14). This is the 
pathos and the pity of the situation. The ac- 
credited guides of heaven had become stumbling- 
blocks to keep people out of heaven. Jesus had 



THE KINGDOM 67 

to reach the people of the time over the heads of 
the religious teachers and even in opposition to 
them. They were angry with him for not being 
a temporal king, and so before Pilate they charged 
him with making himself a king as a rival to 
Caesar, the very thing that they were angry with 
him for not doing. Poor Pilate was hopelessly be- 
fuddled when Jesus said : " My kingdom is not of 
this world " (John 18 : 36). His kingdom was that 
of truth and did not encroach on the realm of 
Caesar. Even the disciples could not compre- 
hend it. " Unto you is given the mystery of the 
kingdom of God" (Mark 4:11), but it was hard 
for them to see into the mystery. Even just 
before the ascension of Christ they will say : 
" Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom 
to Israel ? " (Acts 1 : 6.) It is not until the great 
Pentecost that the disciples will fully understand, 
but after that day they will joyfully proclaim the 
kingdom of God to men. 

The self-complacent Pharisees thought that the 
kingdom of God belonged to them by right of in- 
heritance. " We have Abraham to 

our Father " (Matt. 3 : 9). It was How Does 

, .,, , , ,. One Enter the 

incomprehensible and revolutionary Ki n p.^ om 9 

to be told by both John and Jesus 

that they should " repent." They listened eagerly 

to the statement that the kingdom of God was at 



68 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

hand, but failed to grasp the spiritual and ethical 
significance of its necessary condition. And even 
in our English translation we have an unfortunate 
rendition in "repent," a word that accents an 
emotion connected with this profound spiritual 
revolution rather than the spiritual change itself. 
The scribe should be instructed in the kingdom 
of God (Matt. 13 : 52). Nicodemus failed utterly 
to understand the fundamental words of Jesus : 
" Except a man be born anew (or from above), he 
cannot see the kingdom of God " (John 3 : 3). 
The new birth is not only essential to entrance 
into the kingdom, but the new birth is of heavenly 
origin and is spiritual in character. Paradoxical 
as it may appear, the only way for us to enter the 
kingdom is for the kingdom to enter us. The 
kingdom of God is within us. The kingdom comes 
in with the King. May we let the King come in 
and rule our hearts. When we let God into our 
hearts, then the kingdom comes to us and we 
enter it. We come in as little children with the 
spirit of childlike trust and simplicity, for of such 
is the kingdom (Mark 10 : 14). Simplicity and 
singleness characterize the child's entrance into 
the kingdom. Hence the child is the type. There 
will, of course, be earnestness, for " the kingdom of 
heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it 
by force " (Matt, n : 12). And no wonder, if 



THE KINGDOM 69 

men only knew that it is better to enter the 
kingdom of God lame and halt than with both 
feet and both hands to go to hell (Mark 9 : 47). 
It is hard for some men to get into the kingdom, 
for they wish to carry their sins with them. The 
rich, especially, find it difficult, as hard as for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle. That is, 
with men it is impossible for rich men to be saved. 
But with God all things are possible and there is 
hope for them (Matt. 19 : 26). But Jesus did not 
mean by this to say that the poor man would find 
the door of heaven open to him because he was 
poor. Lazarus is not in Abraham's bosom because 
he is poor. Some will be not far from the king- 
dom and yet may turn back (Mark 12 : 34), and 
the one who looks back is not fit for the kingdom. 
Not every one that thought he was in the kingdom 
would realize this greatest blessing. " Not every 
one that saith Lord, Lord, shall enter the king- 
dom" (Matt. 7 : 21). There will be surprises in 
heaven. Indeed, said Jesus, the righteousness of 
men must exceed that of the scribes and the 
Pharisees, else they would in no case enter the 
kingdom (Matt. 5 : 20), for the very harlots go 
into the kingdom of God before them (Matt. 2 1 : 
31), so hard was it for the Jewish ecclesiastical 
leaders to realize their own sinfulness. But to this 
day it is difficult for men to apprehend the true 



yO KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHIHG OF JESUS 

spiritual value of Christianity apart from ecclesias- 
ticism and ceremonialism. To establish this con- 
ception cost Jesus the hate of the Pharisees. To 
maintain it meant the death of Stephen and for 
Paul the battle of his life. To restore it and pre- 
serve it is the true Protestant principle. This vital 
conception of Christianity can only survive as one 
sees Christ as the revelation of the Father. 

It is both present and future. The reign of 

God is already in the hearts of men. The kingdom 

is realized whenever and wherever 

Is the King- a sinner turns to Christ for salva- 

dom Present tion and finds him „ Rep ent, for 

or future? , , . , r ^ , • i i » 

the kingdom of God is at hand 

(Matt. 3 : 2). It dawns with the new birth and 
repentance. And yet Jesus spoke also of the king- 
dom coming in the future. He spoke thus : "Till 
they see the kingdom of God come " (Mark 9:1); 
" till I drink it anew in the kingdom " ; " till it be 
fulfilled in the kingdom of God " (Luke 22 : 16, 18). 
The fulness and the richness of the reign of God 
are still ahead of us. In heaven above we shall sit 
down with Jesus in the full glory of God's rule, or 
kingdom. We shall see Abraham in the king- 
dom of God (Luke 13 : 28). Till then the king- 
dom is coming more and more. It is gratuitous to 
charge Jesus with inconsistency and incoherence, 
because he had two points of view concerning the 



THE KINGDOM 7 1 

kingdom. Language is not a perfect expression 
of ideas, and it is very common for words to have 
a larger and a smaller content. One can use a 
term now in the full and now in the narrower 
sense, and trust to the common sense of people to 
see the difference. But for this, speech would be, 
indeed, the art of concealing thought. The king- 
dom of God will not be fully come till the struggle 
with sin is over and all the elect are gathered to the 
King. Then the kingdom will be wholly in heaven. 
Till then the kingdom of God is on earth and in 
heaven, present and future, come and coming. 

The wonderful parables of the kingdom set forth 
the origin, character, and final consummation of 
the kingdom. There are chiefly 
three groups of them as spoken by ^ e Gradual 
Jesus, two in Matthew (and Mark) KiWlom 
and one in Luke. The kingdom of 
heaven is like, said Jesus, the grain of mustard 
seed in its small beginning and great destiny ; like 
the leaven in the meal in its pervasive and inten- 
sive power ; like the pearl in its preciousness ; like 
the hid treasure in arousing interest ; like the 
sower sowing seed in that some seed is blessed 
and some is not ; like the silent and wondrous 
growth of the grain by night in its mystery and 
power ; like the field that contains wheat and tares, 
or the net with fishes good and bad, in that the 



*]2 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

kingdom exists in a world full of sin and where 
the evil one is active. But in the midst of sin the 
kingdom grows, overcoming sin, driving it out 
here and there, spreading the power of Christ. It 
is slow work, but it is sure work. The kingdom is 
not the world, nor of the world, but in the world. 
The kingdom is here to transform the world and 
restore it to Christ. But some tares will grow in 
the midst of the wheat to the end. But they will 
still be tares and will be separated then, not now. 
The field where the kingdom works is the world, 
but Satan is busy in the same field. This slow 
expansion of the kingdom of God during the Chris- 
tian centuries is one of the most magnificent 
things in history. The mustard seed has spread 
its branches all over the world. The leaves of the 
tree of life have fallen among all nations. Jesus 
followed the law of life and not of mechanical con- 
trivance. He implanted spiritual life in the hearts 
of some men and this life has reproduced itself by 
the Holy Spirit in spite of all opposition. The 
kingdom of God is to-day the most vital reality of 
earth. No man can touch it, for it is like life. 
And yet, like life, it is indestructible. The laws 
of the kingdom are immutable and inscrutable. 
No one knows how the blade of corn grows nor 
how the kingdom of God vitalizes sinful hearts 
into life. But we rejoice in the presence of the 



THE KINGDOM 73 

supreme fact of the majesty and magnitude of the 

kingdom on earth to-day, the power that makes for 

righteousness. 

The kingdom of God would be taken from the N6 

Jews because they were not worthy, Jesus said 

(Matt. 21 : 43), but the kingdom 

itself would go on and increase in The P erma - 
£ . t. 11 j nence of the 

power. Some of the so-called sons Kinffdom 

of the kingdom will never see it. 
This was a mighty revolution to take the king- 
dom of God away from the Jews. The apostolic 
history answers this prophecy and so does modern 
history. It goes from nation to nation. It is an eter- 
nal kingdom and was prepared before the foundation 
of the world (Matt. 25 : 34). In Dan. 7 : 27 it is 
called an everlasting kingdom, in accordance with 
the promise to David. And Jesus, apparently with 
this glorious promise in mind, interpreted in the 
Messianic sense, and especially as set forth in 
Ps. 89, said to Peter that the gates of hades should 
not prevail against his church. The kingdom bears 
no direct parallel to the local churches, for all 
members of the local churches are not members of 
the kingdom. They should be, to be sure, for we 
should have a regenerated local church-membership, 
but that is not always the actual fact. So appar- 
ently what Jesus in Matt. 16:18 calls "my church," 
in the next verse he calls "the kingdom," whose 



74 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

keys he gives to Peter and to every preacher and 
teacher of the gospel of the kingdom who opens the 
door of salvation to the unsaved. The gates of hades 
shall not prevail against the kingdom of Christ. 
This parallel between the general sense of church 
and the kingdom applies to only one sense of king- 
dom, that of the subjects of the rule of God. This 
seems to be the case here, though it is used in 
other ways not applicable to the general sense 
of the word church. One sense of church and 
one sense of kingdom are co-extensive. This great 
temple has been steadily rising all over the world, 
the spiritual house of God (i Peter 2 : 5). It is the 
stone cut out of the mountain that will overturn 
and overturn. 

Satan offered Christ a short and easy road to 

the conquest of the world. He showed him all 

the kingdoms of the world and the 

The Final g i or y f t h em# " All these will I 

Kingdom give thee, if thou wilt fall down and 
worship me" (Matt. 4 : 9). That 
was all ; just acknowledge the sovereignty and 
power of Satan and there would be no conflict. This 
is always the plea of the compromiser. But Jesus 
chose the hard and the long road that led to the 
cross. He would found his kingdom in his heart's 
blood and in the love of the children of God. 
This would bring sacrifice and humiliation for him 



THE KINGDOM 75 

and ceaseless struggle till final victory should come. 
But he would win in the end. The time will come 
when the kingdoms of the world have become the 
kingdom of our Lord and his Christ (Rev. 11:15). 
That will be heaven indeed. We shall then see 
the Son of Man come in his kingdom (Matt. 
16 : 28). Then we shall eat and drink with him 
(Luke 22 : 30). This kingdom was prepared for 
us from before the foundation of the world (Matt. 
25 : 34), and we shall realize our inheritance with 
Jesus in heaven. Jesus saw the victory before it 
comes. He had the sublime faith, the opti- 
mistic vision to see beyond the grave, beyond the 
long conflict with Satan, to the full and final tri- 
umph in the end, when the redeemed shall be 
gathered together as wheat out of the tares. It is 
the privilege of the believer to catch the enthusiasm 
of this hope and to share in the struggle for this 
glorious end. Till then our work is to battle with 
Satan, as did Jesus and as does Jesus now, for in 
heaven he is still our Captain, leading the hosts on 
earth through the Holy Spirit and planning the 
greatest campaign of the ages, the campaign of 
righteousness against sin. The kingdom of God is 
in deadly conflict with the kingdom of Satan. 
" Lo, I am with you all the days " (Matt. 28 : 20). 
He is leading us to victory. "Then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 



j6 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

the Father " (Matt. 13 : 43). Here is the main- 
spring in missionary endeavor, the sure final vic- 
tory of light over darkness, of Christ over Satan. 
It is not bounded by race ties nor by national 
lines. They shall come from the East and from 
the West, from the North and from 
ACosmopoli- t h e South, and sit down in the 
tan Kingdom kingdom (Matt g . Il} The indi . 

vidual is the unit in the kingdom. It is composed 
of redeemed individuals, not of local churches, not 
of denominations, not of nations, not of races. In 
Christ Jesus there is no difference, and Christ is 
all and in all. As the individual is the unit, so 
the ultimate responsibility rests on the individual. 
The local church should work for the spread of 
the kingdom. That is what it exists for. But a 
sleepy or dead church does not absolve the indi- 
vidual Christian from responsibility. The com- 
placent report of a dead church to the district Asso- 
ciation cannot release a live Christian from his duty. 
The standard of duty in the work of the kingdom 
is the ideal of Christ for each of us. But those 
who come from North and East, South and West, 
will all come in the same way. Jesus is the way 
to the Father, and there is no private door into the 
kingdom, save through him. " Are there few that 
be saved ?" (Luke 13 : 23 f.). That question was 
asked Jesus, and his answer was for men to strive 



THE KINGDOM *]*] 

themselves to enter in by the narrow door. The 
problem for each of us is to find God the Father 
through Christ the Son, and thus receive life, and 
that abundantly. And it is a personal problem. 
The kingdom has a social side, but only as indi- 
viduals are reached. A regenerated society is the 
goal, and comes only by saving individuals. We 
shall hasten the kingdom of God, just as we realize 
the kingdom ourselves, and seek to win other indi- 
viduals to the service of God. That is the secret. 
Eternal life is the possession of every believer, 
whether Jew or Gentile. Let the King come in 
his beauty and let us greet him in the way. If 
this view of the kingdom sounds like Utopia it is 
possible in Christ. If we are to enjoy the king- 
dom of God in heaven we must enjoy the kingdom 
of heaven here. Jesus taught us to pray: "Thy 
kingdom come ; thy will be done, as in heaven, so 
on earth " (Matt. 6 : 10). We should help answer 
our own prayer for the spread of the kingdom of 
God. So shall we realize the highest good for 
ourselves and for the world. 



CHAPTER V 

RIGHTEOUSNESS 

" Do not your righteousness before men" (Matt. 6 : i). 

Doctor Stalker says that in the mouth of Jesus 
righteousness carries the same idea that virtue 
did with the ancients, only it is higher. The 
world has too high an idea of sin and too low an 
idea of righteousness. Jesus uses the word virtue 
not at all, but the idea pervades all he says. He 
uses the word righteous or righteousness seldom, 
yet it is just this rectitude that he sought to create 
in us. Character is our modern word for it, as 
Doctor Stalker says, but here again we do not find 
that Jesus ever used such a word. The righteous 
man, 6 dixatoz, was the man who walked in the way 
pointed out by God to be correct. In this sense 
Zacharias and Elisabeth were called "righteous 
before God " (Luke i : 6), without meaning to 
claim sinlessness for them, but only uprightness 
of character. Salvation by character is not taught 
by Christ, though high character is just what he 
seeks to create in men. He gradually perfects in 
us real likeness to himself. 
78 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 79 

This is clearly what Jesus had in mind as the 
subject of the greatest of his discourses. " Except 
your righteousness shall exceed the 

righteousness of the scribes and ^ e Theme of 

™ in- • the Sermon 

Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter onthe M(mnt 

into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 
5 : 20). " Your righteousness " is the thing that 
he is after. " Blessed are they that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness " (Matt. 5 : 6), he had 
just said, "for they shall be filled." It is possible 
to obtain this righteousness ; nay, those who 
hunger after it will get it. By righteousness Jesus 
means righteous living and not justification. It 
is sanctification as set forth in Rom. 6-8, rather 
than justification, as expounded in Rom. 3-5. 
Practical righteousness is the theme of the Epistle 
of James and is emphasized in the preaching of 
John the Baptist. But it is a practical righteous- 
ness that is the fruit of the spiritual life. It may 
be well to sketch in outline this great sermon so as 
to catch its spirit, since the larger part of Christ's 
teaching on righteousness is contained in it. 

The introduction (Matt. 5 : 3-16 ; Luke 6 : 20-26) 
shows the character of people who are in the 
kingdom of heaven. Spiritual qualities are em- 
phasized entirely, such as longing, humility, purity, 
etc. The theme of the discourse (Matt. 5 : 17-20) 
is the righteousness brought in by the kingdom of 



80 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

heaven as superior to that of the rabbinical teach- 
ers. The rest of the sermon, save the end, is 
argument and illustration of this proposition (Matt. 

5 : 21 to 7 : 12 ; Luke 6 : 31, 36-42) 

The conclusion (Matt. 7 : 13-29; Luke 

6 : 43-49) presents the final test at the judg- 
ment to be the righteousness wrought out in the 
heart and life. Righteousness is the fruit of the 
kingdom and is the proof of the kingdom. 

To the people at the time it was revolutionary. 

They had never heard spiritual morality put thus 

before — so genuine, so inward, so 

Significance vita1, so P rofound > so noble, so ideal. 

of Christ's Here was the breath of heaven and 

Teaching About not the pottering inanities of the 

Eighteousness scribes> the spiritual tea chers of the 

time. It is not true that it is merely ethical with 
no spiritual basis. The Beatitudes precede the 
discussion of practical morality, and this inward 
state is what makes it possible for men to exceed 
the righteousness of scribe and Pharisee. Seek 
ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness 
(Matt. 6 : 33). The kingdom comes before the 
righteousness and makes possible the righteous- 
ness. It is impossible to reach the height of this 
sermon. The modern teachers of ethics often 
affect indifference to the teaching of Jesus, be- 
cause he did not put his ideas in scientific phrase. 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 8 1 

It is a pitiful business, for Jesus is the greatest 
teacher of ethics of all the ages. This discourse 
itself makes an epoch in ethical conceptions. Jesus 
took ethics out of the clouds and brought it down 
to earth. He injected life into the ideas of mo- 
rality. He transmutes ideal into real by the 
alembic of the Spirit. With Christ the new heart 
stands before righteousness. The new life begins 
with the new birth. The roots of righteousness 
strike down into the renewed spirit of man. This 
is the man who builds his house upon the rock. 
This house, and this alone, will stand. 

The scribe was purely legal. He held to the 
letter of the law. The scribe accepted the Old 
Testament in a literal sense and 
added to it the traditions of the f Christ's 
elders, making a second Bible more Teaching with 
important in their minds than the that of the 
first. The scribe confined murder scribes 
to the outward act ; Jesus found murder in the 
heart, in the anger that led to it. The modern 
judge and jury often cannot find it anywhere. 
The scribe saw adultery only in the actual 
crime ; Jesus saw it even in the licentious look. 
The scribe confined profanity to violent oaths ; 
Jesus insisted on the absence of superfluous ex- 
aggerations. The scribe taught the letter of the 
law as to retaliation ; Jesus taught forbearance 

F 



82 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

against resentful vengeance. The scribe taught 
hate of one's enemy ; Jesus taught love of our 
enemies. The spirit was in the letter of the Old 
Testament, but the scribe made it imposible to 
get at the spirit for the letter. No wonder that 
Jesus charged the lawyers (scribes) with taking 
the key of knowledge and locking the door and 
throwing the key away. Rabbinical theology is 
a synonym for hair-splitting, but they have no 
monopoly of the art. They would not go in them- 
selves, nor would they let others in. Certainly 
the scribes were not hungering and thirsting after 
righteousness. They trusted in themselves that 
they were righteous, for they were usually Phari- 
sees (Luke 18:9). Hence when Jesus denounced 
the Pharisees at a feast the scribes (lawyers) took 
it as personal offense (Luke 11 : 37-54). The 
Master, to be impartial, gave the scribes an equal 
number of woes. The scribes were a professional 
class ; the Pharisees were a party. 

The Pharisees were advocates of ceremonial 

righteousness. The outward, the sacramental, was 

all-important. But the trouble al- 

The ways is that the insistence on the 

Kighteousness . , .,, , , , 

of the Pharisee external will lead to hypocrisy. 

Ceremonial righteousness, when 
merely ceremonial, spells hypocritical righteous- 
ness, which is the worst form of unrighteousness. 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 83 

The world hates cant and indorses the judgment 
of Christ. In hell the lowest place will be occu- 
pied by the hypocrite who fleeced pious people 
under the guise of Christianity. The Pharisee 
wished to get credit for being righteous. Else 
what was the use of being good? He did not 
think that virtue was its own reward, but wished a 
reward for being good. " Take heed that ye do 
not your righteousness before men, to be seen of 
them" (Matt. 6 : i). Thus he gave alms to get 
glory of men. If he had lived now his gifts would 
always be in the papers, religious and otherwise. 
Thus he prayed on the street corners to be seen 
of men. Thus he fasted with a long countenance 
to be seen of men to fast. Thus the Pharisees kept 
one eye on heaven and the other to the main chance 
on earth. Thus they sought to serve God and 
Mammon. Thus they criticised their neighbors 
with pious innocence and gratitude. So the proud 
hypocrite stood in the temple and prayed with 
himself, not with God. He did not need any- 
thing, but gave the Lord some valuable informa- 
tion about his own graces and glories. It was on 
the scribes and Pharisees both that Jesus poured 
out the vials of his wrath in the twenty-third 
chapter of Matthew, the fiercest philippic of all 
history. Each time he called them " hypocrites/' 
and, as Doctor Stalker has said, since then hypoc- 



84 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

risy has been regarded as the meanest of sins. 
They stand in the way of the kingdom, then and 
now. They make their proselytes worse than 
before, and they are already sons of hell. They 
are blind hair-splitters, showing how to swear and 
not sin. They lay wrong emphasis on relatively 
unimportant things, straining out gnats and swal- 
lowing camels, big camels with numerous humps. 
They care more for the outside of the cup than for 
what is in the cup. It is all-important to them to 
keep up appearances, even if they steal to do it. 
They are like whited sepulchres, whitewashed 
tombstones. "Even so ye also outwardly appear 
righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of 
hypocrisy and iniquity." Ye are like your fathers. 
" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how shall 
ye escape the judgment of hell ? " Note the 
withering scorn of it all. Jesus is the eternal foe 
of Pharisaism, ancient and modern, the holier- 
than-thou man, the professional holiness man, the 
pretender, the sham, the fraud, the religious hum- 
bug. Let his blistering words forever burn the 
cheeks of those who in modern time prattle the 
jargon of intellectual and verbal orthodoxy, but 
whose hearts are heretical and whose lives reek 
with impurity. The Pharisee has not passed away, 
nor will he so long as sin remains. It is a contin- 
ual temptation to take the hull for the kernel. 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 85 

The Sadducee probably means the merely right- 
eous man. He prides himself on his intellectual 
superiority. He recoiled from the 

noisy Pharisee with all his airs and ^he 

j A j-4.- tt -j Sadducees and 

pretensions and traditions. He said p . ^^^^^ 
r m xiignteousness 

the Pharisee in the end would purify 
the sun. And that has spots ! He was simply 
righteous himself. He it was that Jesus had 
specially in mind when he said : " I came not 
to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt. 9 : 13). 
Not that Jesus admitted the reality of this claim, 
but he simply took the Sadducee at his own 
estimate of himself, which was exceedingly high, 
and treated him so for the moment. The mar- 
ket value of the Sadducees was bullish, they 
being judges. If our own price was the market 
value we might many of us bring a good round 
sum. The Sadducee did not have much theology. 
Some people now think it a virtue to be ignorant 
of theology. They are very virtuous. The Sad- 
ducee chiefly denied the affirmations of the Phari- 
sees about the resurrection, future life, and angels. 
He was content with the five books of Moses, 
especially his own interpretation of them. He 
was the moralist of the time, who cared little for 
creed and much for deed, especially his own, 
judged by his own standards. The Sadducee re- 
joiced in pride of intellect and influential position. 



86 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

Jesus lifted the whole question of virtue out of 

the perfunctory and theoretical into the actual 

and the practical. He had a theory 

Christ's f righteousness, but it differed 

Conception of , „ £ ,* 

•b^+^«™«« wholly from the current notions, 

iiignteousness J 

It was becoming to him and us to 
to fulfil all righteousness (Matt. 3:15), so he said 
when explaining why he submitted to baptism at 
the hands of John the Baptist. It was a righteous 
thing to obey the command of God through John, 
even when Jesus himself had no sins of which to 
repent. He could not in his own case symbolize 
death to sin and resurrection to newness of life by 
the water burial. With Jesus righteousness is 
spiritual and inward. Out of the heart are the 
issues of life. The seat of the ethical life is the 
inner man. The other teachers of ethics had seen 
this, but none had ever grasped it in all its bear- 
ings as had Jesus. The ethical problem is im- 
measurably complicated by the fact that, even as 
children, we are by nature sinful. The most solemn 
word in modern science is heredity. Training 
can do much and we should use it eagerly. But 
we wof ully deceive ourselves if we fail to see the 
need of a new heart, of new life, as the basis for 
righteousness. 

Jesus teaches inherited sin in man. This does 
not mean that children dying before responsibility 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 87 

are lost. Far from it. Environment cannot 
explain the fact that all men are bad if children 
are naturally good. We are by nature sinful. 
Environment and culture do not eliminate the 
sinful nature. The blood of Christ alone cleanses 
from sin through the Holy Spirit. When God calls 
man or child he must answer. That answer is 
conversion. The child and the man must come to 
Jesus, for both need to come. Thank God it is 
easier for the child to come. Let him come. How 
does a child receive the kingdom of God? He 
just takes it with simplicity. So we must become 
as little children in simple receptiveness. Jesus 
put love to God and man as the prime principle of 
human duty. The Old Testament does the same, 
but Jesus sharpened the point and emphasized the 
relation between love to God and love to man. 
This is the sum of human duty, to love. This is 
duty, and duties grow out of it. To love God is 
first, but to love man follows as a necessity. To 
love God and not man is to be merely theological 
without heart and with no helping hand. To love 
man and not God is to be merely humanitarian 
and to run the risk of not being that long. The 
motive power is too slight and soon gives out. 
To love man is the second commandment and not 
the first. It takes both to fulfil Christ's idea of 
human duty. Both are essential with Jesus and 



88 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

in the right order. The Christian's humanitarian 
effort is permanent, because it is rooted in love to 
God. Hence the persistence in the missionary 
movement. 

With Jesus righteousness is personal. He 
preaches civic righteousness surely, and often 
speaks of the heathen nations or the Gentiles by 
way of reproof to the Jews and the disciples. 
Social righteousness is strongly emphasized by 
Christ. Modern sociology has not gone in vain to 
the teaching of Jesus for light. Several new books 
have recently appeared on the social teaching of 
Jesus. This is all true. Nowhere is the peril of 
riches so revealed as in the teaching of Christ. 
The sympathy of Jesus with the downtrodden 
classes is genuine and strong. He dares to be a 
friend of publicans and sinnners, the worst classes 
of the day. But he never lowered himself to the 
level of these classes, nor did they mistake his 
purpose to help and elevate them. Jesus under- 
stood the hollowness of the professional religious 
teachers of the time and denounced them as a 
class. But none the less Christ held men indi- 
vidually responsible for their sins. One of the 
great contributions of Christ to the civilization of 
the world is the discovery of the individual. The 
worth of the soul is what dignifies man. " What 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? " That 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 89 

question rings on through the strife of class with 
class. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. 
And he searches for the lost man by man. "He 
that believeth hath eternal life." The moral re- 
sponse to the appeal of Christ comes out of the 
man's inner nature, not out of any class conditions. 
Christ's way to lift up a class of men is to lift up 
the individuals in the class. Lazarus is finally 
in Abraham's bosom, not because he is a poor 
man, but because he trusted God. The rich man 
in the same parable is in hades in torment not 
because he was rich, but because he was wicked 
and sinful. 

With Jesus righteousness is character. Char- 
acter is inward, but it finds expression in the out- 
ward life which is, in fact, proof of the inner life. 
" By their fruits ye shall know them/' Jesus 
urged. It is futile to call a tree good if the fruit 
is bad. A good tree " cannot " bring forth evil 
fruit. The tree is known by its fruit. You can 
tell an apple from a persimmon. This applies to 
the kind of fruit, and so to the general run of the 
Christian's life. There will be imperfect, even 
rotten fruit on an otherwise good tree. Fields will 
vary in their yield, but good soil will make some 
yield. It is the one who hears and does the sayings 
of Christ, whose house is built on the rock. Christ 
put accent on creed, but not mere belief in a 



90 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

creed. Trust in God, trust in Christ, not in a 
creed or system of faith. Creed comes before 
deed, but the deed should be forthcoming. Creed 
is the intellectual expression of character and the 
character is the crown of the creed. Character 
is what Jesus wishes. He came not to make men 
orthodox. That is an idle purpose in itself. He 
came to make men good. Goodness in life starts 
with right connection with God. Faith without 
works is dead, said James. So said Jesus, so 
said Paul. 

With Jesus character determines destiny. " Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 7:21). It 
is easy for some men to " say." Profession comes 
easy with the flippant and the mercurial tempera- 
ment. " He that doeth the will of my Father in 
heaven," he it is who shall enter the kingdom of 
heaven at last. This final test of character does 
not destroy the force of Christ's teaching that we 
must be born again, must repent or be converted. 
It is impossible to do the will of God without a 
new heart. But then the supreme proof of the 
new heart is the desire to do God's will. More- 
over, the attempt to do God's will increases our 
knowledge of the teaching. " If any man willeth to 
do his will, he shall know of the teaching " (John 
7:17). In the end of the day we must be good, 



RIGHTEOUSNESS 91 

Every man has his own standard of righteous- 
ness. Every age, every nation, has its standard 
of righteousness. Ethical teachers 

have flourished in all ages, philo- Varying 

,. , , .. , c r Standards of 

sophical and practical. Some of Eighteousness 

these teachers affect to ignore Jesus 
because of his terminology. The conscience itself 
records varying verdicts of right or wrong, accord- 
ing to the light at hand. But Jesus has given us 
the absolute standard of righteousness. He warned 
the men of his time against seeking to please men. 
God is the one whose favor we seek. We must 
come up to God's idea and ideal. This is a dis- 
couraging truth at first. We know how impossible 
it is for us to satisfy our own standards of right, 
not to mention that of God. We must stand 
in the white light of Christ's purity and at last 
measure up to his image. 

There is hope for us. Jesus offers to give us 
the righteousness which he demands. This is his 
chief merit as an ethical teacher. It 
is not only the highest ethics, but it Our Hope for 
is possible ethics. If he asks for a x At *f ^ 

, , . , rr • r 1 t0 Christ's 

wedding garment he offers it freely Eighteousness 
to all who will take it. But this 
righteousness by faith was a stumbling-block to the 
Jew and foolishness to the Greek. He offers 
himself as the water of life for the thirsty, the 



92 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

bread of life to the hungry, the rest for the weary, 
righteousness for the sinful. He demands per- 
fect righteousness ; he offers to make us so. He 
proposes to put a new heart in us to begin with. 
Else it would be a useless task. 

The world's ethical teachers begin at the wrong 
end. With the new heart Jesus will work toward 
the restoration of the image of God. He will not 
leave us without help in that struggle. The Holy 
Spirit carries on the work of redemption, and com- 
pletes the sanctifying process, till we shall at last 
be pure in heart and so can see God, for without 
holiness none shall see God. In the end of the day 
the righteousness of Christ will have displaced our 
filthy rags, and we shall be clothed in the blood- 
washed robes of the joyful throng who sing the song 
of Moses and the Lamb. If at first we merely 
put on as a new garment the righteousness of God 
in Christ, at last we shall be like the garment in 
which we are clothed. That is our destiny. For 
that we can hope. To that end we may toil. We 
shall be good, rescued from the power of Satan, 
the taint of Satan's rule washed away by the 
cleansing blood of Jesus, new hearts given us by 
the Holy Spirit, new characters achieved by the 
help of the same Spirit, and finally new bodies for 
our spirits. So shall we be fitted for the home on 
high, to live with God. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE HOLY SPIRIT 

"He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and 
shall declare it unto you" (John 16 : 14). 

Some may wonder why the discussion of the 
teaching of Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit has 
been deferred to this point. Why was it not dis- 
cussed after the chapter on the Son ? That was a 
possible method, but it has seemed best to pursue 
the method of Christ himself and take up the treat- 
ment of the Holy Spirit in the historical order of 
the Master's own teaching. This is the order of 
fact and we get thus a better standpoint. We need 
that standpoint to apprehend this vital subject. 

It was right at the very end of the life of Jesus 

that he spoke most about the Holy Spirit. This is 

natural, because it was then that 

the Lord's thoughts turned chiefly The Place of 

on the future of the kingdom. And the . E $^ l[t 

. . in Unrist s 

yet there is not wanting earlier Teaching 

teaching about the Spirit in the 

words of Jesus. It is in the Gospel of John that 

the later teaching chiefly occurs, while the earlier 

93 



94 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

is more generally in the Synoptics. It is notice- 
able how little teaching we have from Christ about 
the Holy Spirit in comparison with that about the 
Father. But we must remember that the purpose 
of both the Son and the Spirit is to reveal the 
Father to men and not themselves. Yet there is 
no ambiguity in the revelations about the Spirit 
nor a depreciation of his importance. The rather 
he is magnified and glorified. It is lamentable 
that in our day the Holy Spirit should have been 
so neglected that the use of his name has become 
almost the shibboleth of a certain stamp of Chris- 
tians. Whose fault is it ? Some so-called Chris- 
tians even deny the reality of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is frequently mentioned in the 

Old Testament. " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 

you," Isaiah cried (Isa. 61 : i) So 

Not a ^ j oel predicted and God said : " I 

New Doctrine . . „ 

will pour out my Spirit upon all 

flesh" (Joel 2 : 28). "Take not thy Holy Spirit 
from me," David prayed in his great penitential 
Psalm (51 : 11). The Spirit of God is a phrase 
often in the mouth of the prophets. Still the 
New Testament time is preeminently the dispen- 
sation of the Holy Spirit. The apocryphal wis- 
dom of Solomon makes frequent mention of the 
Holy Spirit, but Jesus has told us most about 
his work. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 95 

He is not merely an influence simply because 
he is spoken of as Spirit. God is Spirit, and that 
argument would destroy the person- 
ality or individuality of the Father. Tte . 
When Jesus calls him another Com- ^ Hol g £ irit 
forter he clearly sets forth another 
person on a par with himself. When Jesus gave 
the Great Commission he commanded baptism in 
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If 
the Father and Son are persons, so is the Spirit. 
We are not able to give an adequate definition of 
person as applied to the Trinity, nor for that 
matter can we adequately describe person at all. 
The word means mask, then a part played, then 
the one who plays a part, the individual. We 
know that we are ourselves separate beings, en- 
dowed with individual characteristics and re- 
sponsibilities, though enjoying all of us a common 
nature. One of our first lessons is the difference 
between rneum, and tuutn. Some persons never 
learn it. In the will we place the seat of conscious 
power, but clear analysis eludes the psychologist 
who searches for the spirit of man or of God. 
The work of the Holy Spirit is likewise conclusive 
proof that he is personal, and not merely an influ- 
ence. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our 
spirits and dwells in us. The Trinity is thus clearly 
taught, one God and three persons. 



96 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who is 

himself spirit. It was the Spirit of God who 

descended on Jesus at his baptism. 
Eelation The Father win send the Holy 

tO tll6 x £ttll6r . . 

bpint when Jesus is gone from 
earth. The Spirit proceeds from the Father. The 
Son returns to the Father and the Spirit comes 
from the Father. The Holy Spirit was in the 
world in some measure before the ascension of 
Christ, but it was at Pentecost, the great Pente- 
cost, that the Holy Spirit came in fulness and 
power. John had said that Jesus would baptize 
with the Spirit, but the promise was not fully 
realized till Jesus went up on high. The Spirit 
was not incarnate as Christ and the "bodily form," 
like a dove, at the baptism was temporary and 
symbolic, but he dwells in the Christian, in indi- 
viduals, and in churches. God gives not the 
Spirit by measure, but in richness and power. As 
Jesus revealed the Father while on earth, so the 
Spirit continues that glorious work and with a 
great advantage. Jesus, having human form, was 
here and not there, but the Spirit having no bodily 
form is omnipresent, i. e. y he can dwell in every 
Christian at the same time. Moreover, Jesus 
could not stay on earth always. But the Holy 
Spirit will be with us forever. The term Holy 
used so often before Spirit has its fullest contrast. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 97 

He is absolutely holy and so differs from our 
spirit, as Jesus said, " Holy Father." He is not 
only the Spirit of God, but is God. Spirit is 
more nearly the idea than Ghost, which in modern 
English brings up the picture of death. He is the 
Spirit of life, and not the ghost of death. Not 
only does the Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask him, but he is more ready to do so than 
an earthly father is to give good gifts to those who 
ask him. Do we ask the Father for this high 
and holy gift ? The new yearning for the Holy 
Spirit in our time is cause for gratitude. 

The mystery of the incarnation of Christ is re- 
vealed as wrought by the Holy Spirit. On this 
point Jesus, of course, says nothing. 
But both Matthew and Luke testify Relation of the 
to the brooding investiture of the to Jesus 
Holy Spirit, by whose power the 
Word was made flesh and so he was born of woman. 
The union of the divine and the human natures in 
Christ is the great mystery of his person. We 
know that this essential fact in the Redeemer's 
incarnation is due to the Holy Spirit, but we must 
leave it in mystery. 

Jesus in his human life was under the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit in a special way. The descent 
of the Holy Spirit at the baptism was not the be- 
ginning of this influence upon him, but was rather 



98 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

the formal entrance upon the Messianic mission. 
John was to know the Messiah by this descent. 
Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to 
be tempted of the devil. He went into Galilee full 
of the Holy Spirit. He wrought his miracles by 
the Spirit of God. Blasphemy against the Spirit 
of God was worse than against Jesus, who was also 
man. Indeed, the ministry of Christ was set over 
against that of John the Baptist by the Baptist 
himself as being one characterized by the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist was full of 
the Holy Spirit, and yet he said that the ministry 
of Jesus should be so much that of the Spirit that 
his would sink back into obscurity by contrast. 
As his was marked by water baptism, Christ's 
would be distinguished by Spirit baptism. Jesus 
would baptize some with the Spirit and others 
with fire ; the axe lay at the root of the trees ; and 
so the good will stand while the unfruitful will be 
hewn down and cast into the fire ; the wheat will 
be gathered into the garner, the chaff will be 
burned with fire unquenchable. Separation then 
will mark the ministry of Jesus. There will be a 
twofold baptism, that of the Spirit and that of 
fire. Jesus himself rejoiced in the Holy Spirit 
when the Seventy returned from their experimental 
ministry. 

There is an implied inferiority in office on the 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 99 

part of the Holy Spirit, both to the Father and 
the Son. In person and nature the Spirit is on a 
par with the Father, but the Father sends the 
Holy Spirit and so does Jesus. He spoke of the 
Spirit "whom I will send from the Father " (John 
1 5 : 26). Once in the upper room after the resur- 
rection he breathed on them and said : " Receive 
ye the Holy Spirit." This was an earnest of what 
was to come. The Spirit is to be sent again in 
the name of Jesus. He is to be another Com- 
forter, just as Jesus had been. Henceforth the 
new Comforter will take the place of Jesus with 
believers. Moreover, it is best for them that Jesus 
go to the Father. Else the Spirit could not come 
in the new and large sense. And this coming is 
for the good of all. He will be a true Comforter, 
Helper, Paraclete, Advocate. It is a hard word to 
translate, for it combines the idea of advocate and 
consoler. He will teach us how to plead our cause 
with God, and will himself plead God's cause with 
us. The Greek advocate did both of these things 
with his client. He pleaded the case and taught 
the client to plead his own cause. We have two 
Advocates. Christ on high pleads our cause with 
the Father, and the Spirit on earth pleads the 
Father's cause with us. God has made every 
possible provision for the salvation of the sinner 
and the growth of the Christian. 

I.0FC. 



IOO KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

The Holy Spirit is the teacher about Jesus as 

Jesus was the teacher of God. Thus we learn the 

Father in the Son by the Spirit. 

Our Jesus bids us come to him and learn 

Apprehension of God SQ the g Mt offers tQ teach 
of Onrist is by . 

the Spirit us *he riches of Christ. Jesus is 

the picture of the Father, but the 
Spirit explains the picture. " If I go, I will send 
him unto you "(John 16 : 7). Yes, he continues, 
and when he is come, "he shall glorify me: for 
he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto 
you" (John 16 : 14). "He shall bear witness of 
me" (John 15 : 26). This is the great office of 
the Spirit. He can help men to see Christ. No man 
has ever seen Christ who has not seen him as the 
Spirit is able to reveal him. 

Pictures of Christ by great artists all fail to 
catch the real Christ. We hear much about the 
historical Christ in our day, and historical criti- 
cism has done much for the apprehension of 
Jesus. The figure of Christ now fills the world 
as it never did before. We can get back behind 
Calvin and Augustine, and see Jesus as his fol- 
lowers and contemporaries saw him. But even 
then we have not seen Jesus as he was and 
is. For his contemporaries crucified him, one of 
his followers betrayed him, another denied him, 
and all expected him to set up a temporal Mes- 



THE HOLY SPIRIT IOI 

sianic kingdom in Jerusalem. If we had lived then 
would we have understood Christ ? Now, as then, 
mere historical information, however great, cannot 
tell all that is to be known about Jesus nor the 
best that there is to know. Many a man has 
essayed to write a life of Jesus who has never 
sat at the feet of Jesus, and who has not chosen 
the good portion of spiritual fellowship. The 
spiritual apprehension of Christ as of the truth in 
Jesus, is the only adequate knowledge of the 
Saviour. This is to know Jesus and the power of 
his resurrection. This knowledge of Jesus the 
Holy Spirit alone can give. As no one can fully 
reveal the Father save the Son, so no one can fully 
reveal Jesus save the Holy Spirit. If we would 
see Jesus now, we need not merely the words of 
Jesus, but the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit-blessed 
messenger. 

The Holy Spirit will use men, not angels, to tell 
the story of Jesus. He impresses the heart di- 
rectly, even the heart of the unre- 

generate, but none the less and all Th ,! A P° stolic 
, , , Teaching 

the more the gospel preacher is 

needed and used, a man who has a personal expe- 
rience of Christ's love to tell. The Spirit is prom- 
ised to all Christians in the apprehension of Christ 
and insight into the truth of God. He is the 
Spirit of truth, and so is concerned with all aspects 



102 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

of truth. Besides the illumination to all Chris- 
tians in whom he abides, the Spirit is promised in 
special manner to the apostles and early followers 
of Jesus. He shall " bring to your remembrance 
all that I said unto you " (John 14 : 26). How 
much they had forgotten ! " He shall guide you 
into all the truth " (John 16 : 13), for Jesus had not 
told them all they needed to know (John 16 : 12). 
It was a progressive unfolding of the truth about 
God. The kingdom kept coming more and more. 
But the Spirit would " teach you all things " 
(John 14 : 26). They will be qualified to teach 
Jesus by a larger and richer knowledge of him. 
It is fifty days in time from the crucifixion to the 
day of Pentecost, but it is fifty years in psycho- 
logical and spiritual history. Peter, who had gone 
into hiding after his disgraceful denial of Christ, 
becomes the outspoken champion and exponent of 
Christianity. From a cowardly blasphemer he has 
turned into a lion of courage. Then he quailed 
before the rulers ; now they quail before him. 
This revolution in Simon Peter calls for an expla- 
nation. The facts alone can give it. Jesus rose 
from the dead ; Peter saw him ; the Holy Spirit 
has flooded his heart. This is revelation. This is 
inspiration. Here is the first interpretation of 
Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It 
is like that of Jesus himself, only it is fuller, for 



THE HOLY SPIRIT 103 

the great facts of his atoning death, resurrection, 
and ascension could not be fully interpreted before 
they came to pass. First faith had displaced 
doubt. Then hope had come. Now there is 
knowledge and power. 

It was not till Pentecost that even Peter appre- 
hended Jesus. Before he died Jesus promised that 
the Holy Spirit would come to bless and guide, to 
be his successor. After his resurrection and just 
before his ascension he repeated that promise. He 
could do so with new emphasis and with special 
appropriateness. This coming of the Holy Spirit 
was to be an age-long dispensation. The baptism of 
the Holy Spirit was to mark the entrance upon the 
new epoch of expansion in knowledge and growth. 
The signs accompanying it authenticated the ad- 
vent of the Spirit. In this sense the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit as marking a new dispensation is 
not to be repeated now. It is like the incarnation 
of Christ. But it is a real baptism of the Spirit 
every time we actually put ourselves at the service 
of God's Spirit. It is a missionary promise that 
needs to be linked to the Great Commission. Jesus 
charged the disciples to go into all the world and 
take it for him. Now he renews that command. 
Then he had said that he would be with them all 
the days. Now he says that the Holy Spirit will 
clothe them with power. With this new power 



I04 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

they can and must go unto all the nations, begin- 
ning from Jerusalem. Thus Judea, Samaria, and 
the uttermost part of the earth will be reached. 
This is the horizon that Jesus lifts before his now 
rejoicing disciples as he leaves them. Soon he 
led them out and ascended on high. The sublime 
optimism of Jesus in the face of death and de- 
parture from earth is due to his knowledge that 
the Holy Spirit will succeed him and carry on the 
Christian enterprise. He dared challenge the 
kingdom of the world to final struggle, for he knew 
his power. He had already overcome the world 
and so must the disciples. 

The Holy Spirit, then, is to take up the struggle 

against the kingdom of Satan. Jesus challenged 

Satan and overcame the world. The 

andfte World H ° ly Spirit is t0 convict the world 
(John 1 6 : 8f.). He is to press 

Christ on the hearts of men. Sin, righteousness, 
and judgment are the things about which the Spirit 
will convict men, but sin first and foremost. One 
of the deadening effects of sin is that men lose 
consciousness about it. After sin comes right- 
eousness as the opposite and the necessary substi- 
tute for it. Without righteousness comes judg- 
ment for sin. The sense of sin and the need of 
righteousness we should press home now, as never 
before on the minds of men. The Spirit alone 



THE HOLY SPIRIT IO5 

can reach the hearts of men. Let us use winged 
words, use all skill and wisdom, and trust the Spirit 
of God. Vain is our preaching without the con- 
victing power of the Holy Spirit. 

After conviction one of two things results, re- 
jection or submission. The Holy Spirit presses 
on a man his destiny. It is the sublimest of con- 
flicts when the Spirit of God strives with the spirit 
of man. The two sovereign wills collide. See the 
struggle in a child's will. No wonder the angels 
watch and rejoice when man surrenders to God 
and finds his own best self in God. God respects 
the human will. Jesus called this experience the 
new birth. It is a birth by the Spirit of God in 
the spiritual nature of man. A new heart comes 
to him and a new life begins. This is the supreme 
mystery in the Christian life. We cannot explain 
how the Spirit of God lays hold of the spirit of 
man, dead in trespasses and sins, and injects new 
life into him. It is the Spirit that quickens. Herein 
is the marriage between divine sovereignty and 
human free agency. We know that God is su- 
preme and that we are responsible. The absolute 
power of God does not absolve us from our respon- 
sibility. We know this and must be content to 
know no more. Jesus himself found his chief joy 
in doing the will of the Father. That is the 
highest virtue. 



I06 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

The Holy Spirit shall dwell in us. With the 

new birth the Holy Spirit takes up his abode in 

our souls ; our bodies are his tem- 

T h 6 ShriV** ple * Think ° f that He CarrieS ° n 
the work that he began in us. We are 

to be sanctified in the realm of the truth, but the 
work is done by the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not 
expand this phase of the Spirit's work, as we have 
it discussed later in Galatians and Romans. But 
the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is made 
clear. The indwelling power of the Spirit is dwelt 
on also. Jesus even said that the Father and he 
would make their abode in the hearts of believers 
(John 14 : 23). Wonder of wonders is this. This 
blessed indwelling is the work of the Holy Spirit. 
Thus Jesus will be with his people through all the 
ages. So also the disciple grows into constant 
and increasing likeness to his Master. If the 
Spirit of Christ is in us, we are his now and shall 
be with him always. The Spirit will make us holy 
in the end. Sanctification is a process, not a 
single act. We should seek to be holy. Actually 
some people think it a bad thing to be holy. This 
is due to a reaction against a professional holiness 
which does not command confidence. 

We do not need to pray for the coming of the 
Holy Spirit. The promise of the Father was ful- 
filled at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is here and 



THE HOLY SPIRIT IO7 

this is his dispensation. We need to put ourselves 
at the service of the Spirit, so as to be used by 
him. It is the age of the Holy Spirit. He, not 
the pope, is the Vicegerent of Christ. He is will- 
ing and anxious to bless us and to use us. And 
he will if we are not full of ourselves, if we are 
willing to be filled with the power of the living 
God. We must make room for the Spirit of God. 
We should live so that the Spirit will love and 
dwell in us. Jesus will come again. Till he come 
the Spirit is here to lead men to Christ and thus to 
the Father. Are we at the service of the Spirit ? 
He alone is power, for he is God. He uses 
many conductors for the conveyance of power, and 
some very weak ones. Can a soul 
be saved as the result of the preach- The Spirit 
ing of a bad man ? What about qJ^SS^ 
Judas ? We are not responsible for 
our spiritual ancestors. We do not trust the 
preacher, but Christ. The wires that run over- 
head are not the power that moves the cars. The 
cars do not move themselves. The electricity is 
the power. We must not mistake machinery for 
power, nor creed for life. Modern Christianity is 
highly organized and properly so. The manifold 
life of to-day calls for varied effort. But there is 
only one power for all the wheels, for all the en- 
gines, for all the weapons in the army of Christ. 



108 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

It is the Spirit of God. If we look to aught else 
the wheels will run off, the engines will be power- 
less. To change the figure we shall use blank 
cartridges. We shall then have pop-gun sermons 
instead of torpedoes. On what do we depend for 
success ? No real progress is possible in Christian 
work that does not help on the kingdom of God. 
Vain our statistics, our conventions, our schools, 
our papers, our books, our gifts, our numbers, our 
gatherings, our emotions unless God be with us, 
God the Holy Spirit. If we follow his lead and 
feel the beat of his heart we shall take the world 
for Christ and do it speedily. Lord Jesus, breathe 
on us thy Spirit and fill us with the fulness of God. 
Dwell in us and help us walk with thee. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FUTURE LIFE 

"I come again, and receive you unto myself, that where 
I am there ye may be also" (John 14 : 3). 

Jesus has more to say about the life that now is 
than about the life to come, but not because the 
present life is more important. Far otherwise. 
With Jesus the chief emphasis is ever on the fu- 
ture state. Present duties are brightened by future 
hopes. Present woes are darkened by a greater 
cloud. The satisfaction of the world without God 
is the pity of it all. 

The world is always longing for a voice from 
the other world to tell the truth about it. Men 
slip up back-stairs to attics to hear 
what so-called spiritualists have to A Voice from 
say. Yes, and they believe this is 
scientific, while Christianity is superstition ! It is 
easy to deceive people. They will not believe 
Moses and the prophets nor the voice from the 
dead (Luke 16 : 31). Jesus is the real voice from 
the other world. He came from heaven, where 
he had been before his incarnation. Repeatedly 

109 



IIO KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

Christ speaks of his having come from God, of the 
glory that he had with the Father before the 
foundation of the world. He has come by the 
humble route of human birth, but none the less 
he existed before his birth. He is the Word of 
God, the Living Epistle, addressed to men. Will 
they read him now? Some rejected Christ then 
and some reject him now, as the Spirit presses 
him home on men's hearts. He is, therefore, 
qualified to speak of God and the future life. He 
may have drawn a veil down between his earthly 
life and the life in heaven. We do not know how 
vivid his consciousness was on that point, but we 
do know that he had this consciousness. More- 
over, Jesus came back to earth from the grave. 
He had all that any man could get who has been 
to the other world, and more. Jesus came back 
not as mere spirit, but as himself, soul, and body, 
and as God's own Son, who rightly apprehended 
the value of this life and the life to be. 

Christ is so clear on this point that no expos- 
itory remarks are necessary. It is worth while, 
however, to insist on the fact, for 

Eeality of the j ust here is the essence of Christi- 
future Life . 

anity. If there is no life hereafter, 

not only is Jesus grievously deceived, but the 

hopes of men come to naught. All men, save a 

few materialistic philosophers, have looked for a 



THE FUTURE LIFE I I I 

life beyond the grave. If this is only a mirage it 
is more than a mockery. It is true that the hope 
of future life is a comforting and ennobling one, 
even if untrue. But the dignity and the serious- 
ness of religion vanish if death ends all. In fact, 
Paul said that we are of all men most miserable. 
The character, work, and words of Jesus all 
guarantee the reality of the future life. Else he 
is either ignorant and a mere deluded man, or a 
hypocrite of the worst kind. The constant as- 
sumption in all the words of Jesus is that he was 
able to tell the truth about the spiritual life. 

There is no Nirvana in the teaching of Christ. 
The rather the conscience is described as being 
keenly alive in the other world and 
memory is all ablaze. It would be The Future 
a comfort to many men if death Eve ^ s ling 
could end all. It is in this delusive 
hope that so many commit suicide. But the 
spiritual life is not deadened by death. The soul 
is released from the body and there is a fuller joy 
or a keener woe. There is no hope of an inter- 
mediate state. Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom, 
and the rich man is in torment and a great gulf is 
fixed between them. This is the final, not the in- 
termediate state. There is no complete nor partial 
cessation of consciousness, but everlasting con- 
sciousness in a highly developed state. Even in 



112 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

eternal death it is rather eternal dying in the sense 

of spiritual agony, not of unconsciousness. Christ 

holds out no hope of annihilation of the soul nor 

of soul sleeping. Nor does he predicate future 

existence only of the redeemed. Both the saved and 

the unsaved have immortal spirits, which shall live 

on forever. 

The man who thinks that this life is the real 

life and seeks it, loses his true life. The way to 

find true life is to lose one's life 

The Seal Life in God Life consists not in the 

is Ahead 

abundance of things that a man 

possesses and is more than meat. The soul is the 

man's life, and this is worth more than all the 

world, not to mention the little part of it that we 

can get for a few years. Hence the satisfaction 

of present needs, while necessary, should not be at 

the expense of, not to say the exclusion of, the 

spiritual life. The soul has need of the body but 

the body is only the home of the soul. The soul 

can live without it and will do so for a while. The 

ultimate state of the soul is to dwell in a glorified 

body, not this temple of clay. Wonderful as is 

the human body it is a prison to the soul. Its 

powers are circumscribed and many clogs hinder 

the spiritual life. However, the body in itself is 

not [sinful, though sin dwells in the flesh as in the 

soul. The essence of sin is in the soul. But the 



THE FUTURE LIFE I 1 3 

body will be raised from the tomb, Jesus said. 
What this body would be he did not say. Paul 
calls it a spiritual body that had some connection 
with the natural body. There will be the resur- 
rection both of the just and of the unjust, to life 
and to death (John 5 : 29). The mystery of the 
bodily resurrection is after all no greater than the 
mystery of life itself. The resurrection of Jesus is 
not specially analogous to our resurrection, though 
a guarantee of it. But the spiritual man is to rule 
the bodily man and not to feed itself on " much 
goods laid up for many years." That is to be a 
fool. The pity of it is to see so many starved 
souls around us feeding on the husks that the 
swine eat. It was this that evoked the pity of 
Jesus. The swine care not for pearls. But some 
men find joy in the hidden treasure, the pearl of 
great price. In some there is a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life. 

Christ conceives of the future state as deter- 
mined by this life. The time of probation is here, 
not hereafter. To this end Jesus 
exhorted men to believe in him. To The 

this end he promises eternal life — n n ^. 1 ^ 
r Conditioned 

indeed, here already we have eternal by this Life 
life. Future probation receives no 
sanction in the words of Jesus. He expressly de- 
nies it when Abraham reminds the wicked rich 

H 



114 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

man that he had already had his opportunity in 
yonder world. It is more just that it is so and 
also more merciful. It is true that we are born 
with sinful natures and live in a sinful world, and 
multitudes have no knowledge of Christ, and are 
without God and without hope in the world. But 
even the darkest phase of heathenism has more 
opportunity than one could reasonably look for in 
the future life, even if such opportunity were given. 

Here our hearts are undeveloped and in the 
formative state ; there is more possibility of being 
reached here by a little light than in the future 
life in larger and fuller light. Character is slow in 
formation but permanent in result. It is character 
that fixes destiny. When the character is stamped 
in hard lines the powers of resistance to spiritual 
light are indefinitely increased. The demons be- 
lieve and tremble. They know enough to save 
even demons if mere knowledge could do that. 

No such word fell from the lips of Jesus. He 
did say that there would be degrees of punish- 
ment, few stripes and many stripes. 

future The punishment w T ill be tempered 
Punishment is ,. l1 £ £ .. , 

not Corrective according to the facts of the char- 
acter. But our Lord did not share the 
sentimental weakness that shrank from the pun- 
ishment of sin. He knew how holy God is and how 
heinous sin is. He used the word " damnation " 



THE FUTURE LIFE I 15 

and " damnation of hell" (Matt. 23 : 33). He 
spoke of everlasting punishment, and used the 
same word for "everlasting" that he used when 
he spoke of everlasting life (Matt. 25 : 46). We 
need not be more merciful in our theology than 
Jesus is. He so loved the world that he died for 
it. There can be no greater love than this. It is 
gratuitous for us to assume that we apprehend 
spiritual realities better than Jesus. And yet he 
calmly said to the Pharisees that they would die 
in their sins unless they believed in him. We 
must remember that it cost the blood of God's 
Son to make possible the salvation of any. We 
must remember also that men are free agents and 
have a right to reject life. The destiny goes with 
the choice. 

The problem of the heathen is serious. But 
Jesus has some sheep among them. The infants 
who die before the age of responsibility are 
surely saved. The heathen who come to age and 
die are not condemned because they have not 
heard of Jesus, but because they do not live 
up to the light which they have. They have na- 
ture and they have conscience. The heathen do 
not do what they know, nor did the Jew, nor do 
we. There is no hope in any of us save in Christ. 
But in salvation through Christ the justice of 
God is to be maintained and the free will of man 



Il6 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

respected. This problem is too high and too deep 
for us, but at least we are not permitted in the light 
of it to rail against God because he punishes those 
who are guilty of sin with a punishment adequate 
to the sin. God has ordained a moral universe 
and righteousness is at the base of it. It would 
be pleasant to cling to what is called " eternal 
hope," and long for and believe in the ultimate 
redemption of all men. But there is no Scripture 
nor moral basis for it. The arguments that over- 
turn eternal punishment overturn eternal life. We 
must remember that we do not understand how 
dreadful sin is nor how holy God is. We can trust 
the God of all the earth to do right. 

It is inevitable that judgment meet us if sin is 
to be punished. The personal condemnation to 

hell or the welcome to heaven comes 
The Judgment at death. There is thus individual 

judgment for every one. And yet 
the Master teaches more than this. He pictures 
a general judgment day, which would be only con- 
firmatory of what is already true, to be sure, but 
which would seal publicly and finally the states of 
all. The sheep will be on the right and the goats 
on the left (Matt. 25:33). So the shepherds of 
Palestine, crook in hand, now separate their flocks 
at eventide. The curse will be : " Depart from 
me," and will be pronounced by the Son of Man 



THE FUTURE LIFE 117 

who came on earth to save men. He himself will 
then be the Judge of all the earth. He as King 
of the kingdom will open and shut the door of 
hope for good and all. To the sheep he will say, 
" Come, ye blessed of my Father/' The kingdom 
was prepared for you before the foundation of the 
world. Now enter it finally and fully. It is the 
most august of all the scenes in the words of 
Jesus, this judgment scene in Matt. 25, when all 
the peoples of the earth shall be gathered before 
him. There will be many surprises then or at 
death. But the Judge and King will pronounce 
the solemn sentence. By their fruits the trees will 
be judged and the judgment will be final. " And 
these shall go away into eternal punishment : but 
the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. 25 : 46). 

Does Jesus teach hell ? Has the Revised ver- 
sion done away with hell ? Now the English word 
hell originally meant the hidden 

place, from helan, to hide or conceal. -, _ « e Tr „ 
fl. _ , • ', Fact of Hell 

The Greek word hades meant pre- 
cisely this idea. It was the unseen world, not the 
evil world. To be sure, in the unseen world are both 
heaven and hell. So the rich man is in hades in 
torment. So hades was sometimes used of the place 
of torment as the English word hell is now always. 
The Revised version has done a service in trans- 
literating hades and confining the term hell to the 



Il8 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

translation of gehenna. But the revisers have not 
taken hell out of the teaching of Jesus. It is im- 
possible to take it out. The idea is put in figura- 
tive form, it is true, but the figures fall short of 
the reality, as is true in the case of heaven. Jesus 
has not said that hell is literal fire, though he calls 
it the hell of fire and unquenchable fire. He also 
calls it the place of outer darkness, the place where 
the worm dieth not. But the fact of hell is not 
dependent on the literalness of these awful figures, 
for eternal punishment is hell. The eternal wrath 
of God is hell. The lashing of the conscience is 
hell. Jesus means that hell is the abode of lost 
spirits. But the fact of hell is not conditioned by 
its being a place, though this is possibly true. 
Every man makes his own hell and makes it here. 
Hell begins on earth and is continued hereafter. 
We need new emphasis on the fact of hell, but let 
it be scriptural emphasis, not mere theological 
emphasis. We must always distinguish between a 
fact and our theory of the fact. 

" Because I live, ye shall live also V (John 14:19). 

He is life and is able to give life, for he has 

life in himself (John 5 : 26). This is 

The Ground of gr0 und of hope. The spiritual 

Eternal Life 5 . . r / . , F . . 

appropriation of Jesus is the assimi- 
lation of spiritual life. This is to "eat" his flesh 
and to drink his blood, indeed to " eat " him 



THE FUTURE LIFE 119 

(John 6 : 57). Here, then, the Christian is on 

high and sure, if mystical, ground. The branches 

are united to the vine. No one can snatch the 

elect out of the hand of the Redeemer. This is 

the true " eternal hope " and the only one. This 

is the way to have life in ourselves. Jesus has life 

in himself and can give us eternal life. The words 

of Jesus are spirit and life only because he is 

spirit and life. Jesus offers himself in the last 

analysis as the ground of eternal hope. Life comes 

from life, eternal life from eternal life. 

Jesus gives us not many pictures of heaven, 

though he often alludes to heaven, as when he says 

"our Father in heaven," "the angels 

of God in heaven," "joy in heaven," 0hn /J Picture 

. , »» ™ , of Heaven 

"treasures in heaven. The phrase 

"kingdom of heaven" is very common in Matthew 
and is equal in effect to the kingdom of God. 
God is in heaven and heaven is where God is in 
his fulness and power. Jesus himself comes from 
heaven and is going back to heaven. He likewise 
uses Abraham's bosom as a term for future happi- 
ness. So also paradise is a term for heaven. The 
word heaven is used in two senses, the regions 
above us and then the abode of the redeemed. 

But it is in John fourteen that our Lord has 
most to say on the subject of heaven. Here he 
calls it his Father's house. It is a figure surely, but 



120 KEYWORDS IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS 

a beautiful one. Our Father has a great home with 
many mansions, and there is room for all the chil- 
dren. The eldest Son has gone back home and 
he will make ready a place for all the absent loved 
ones. As they come home he will welcome them 
and assures them beforehand that a room will be 
ready. He wishes them all to be with him for- 
ever in the Father's house. There is going to be 
a family reunion on high. All the absent ones 
will come back. The vacant chairs will be occu- 
pied. The vacant seats at the table will be no 
longer empty. Moreover, Jesus will come himself 
and show us the way to the home on high. He 
will take us by the hand at the gate of death and 
lead us over the river and up the hill and into our 
new home. That will be heaven, to be with 
Jesus forever, to see him as he is. He will then 
show us the Father in a new way. We shall be 
ready to endure the majesty and glory of the sur- 
roundings. All sin will be purged from our 
hearts. We shall be pure, and only the pure will 
be there. He will introduce us to the saints of 
old, to Abraham, to Moses, to Elijah, to David, to 
Isaiah, to John the Baptist, to John the beloved 
disciple, to Simon Peter, to Paul, to Augustine, to 
Chrysostom, to Calvin, to Knox, to Spurgeon, to 
Boyce, to Broadus. Then the kingdom will have 
come indeed. But if this is to be true the king- 



THE FUTURE LIFE 121 

dom must begin with us here on earth. Heaven 
must first enter us if we are to enter it. Jesus said 
that, if he went, he would come again and take us 
to be with him. " Amen : come, Lord Jesus." 

These seven " words " of Jesus are not all that 
he spoke to men. They are, however, most im- 
portant for the comprehension of the theology of 
our Lord. If we rightly understand the great 
Teacher's message concerning the Father, the Son, 
Sin, the Kingdom of God, Righteousness, the Holy 
Spirit, the Future Life, we shall be able easily to 
construct an orderly and a correct outline of the re- 
maining doctrines. The logic of the life and teach- 
ings of Jesus is summed up in his own memorable 
words : " All things have been delivered unto me 
of my Father : . . and no one knoweth the Son, save 
the Father; neither doth any know the Father, 
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 
willeth to reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; 
for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light " (Matt. 1 1 : 27-30). 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURE 
REFERENCES 



PAGE 

2 Samuel 7 : 13, 16 58 

Psalm 51 : 11 94 

Psalm 89 58, 73 

Psalm 89 : 4, 5, 38, 48 59 

Joel 2 : 28 94 

Isaiah 61 : 1 94 

Jeremiah 8 : 22 51 

Daniel 7 : 14, 18 59 

Daniel 7:27 59,73 

Mark 1 : 15 56 

Mark 4 : 11 67 

Mark 4:12 46 

Mark 9 : 1 65, 70 

Mark 10: 14 68 

Mark 12 : 29 22 

Mark 12 :34 63, 69 

Mark 13 : 32 38 

Mark 14: 62 30,33 

Mark 15 : 43 63 

Matthew 1:21 42 

Matthew 3 : 2 56, 61, 70 

Matthew 3 : 9 17, 67 

Matthew 3 ; 15 32, 86 

Matthew4:3 13 

Matthew 4 : 9 74 

Matthew 4: 17 56 

Matthew 5 : 3-16 79 

122 



PAGE 

Matthew 5 : 6 79 

Matthew 5 : 17-20 79 

Matthew 5 : 19 65 

Matthew 5 : 20 36, 69, 79 

Matthew 5 : 21 to 7 : 12 80 

Matthew 5 : 43 35 

Matthew6:l 78, 83 

Matthew 6 : 9 14 

Matthew 6 : 10 36, 77 

Matthew 6 : 13 47 

Matthew 6 : 22 f 47 

Matthew 6 : 33 65, 80 

Matthew 7 : 13-29 80 

Matthew 7: 21 68, 90 

Matthew 7 : 23 21 

Matthew 8 : 11 76 

Matthew9:4 47 

Matthew 9 : 6 29 

Matthew 9 : 12 34 

Matthew 9 : 13 42, 85 

Matthew 10: 7 57 

Matthew 10 : 28 50 

Matthew 11: 12 68 

Matthew 11: 19 41 

Matthew 11 : 27 14 

Matthew 11 : 27-40 122 

Matthew 11: 28 21,35,54, 55 

Matthew 11 : 29 25 

Matthew 12: 12 49 

Matthew 12:25 59f 

Matthew 12 : 28 62 

Matthew 12 : 34 16, 45 

Matthew 13 : 43 76 

Matthew 13 : 52 68 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES 



123 



PAGE 

Matthew 16: 18 59,73 

Matthew 16 : 19 64 

Matthew 16: 26 50 

Matthew 16: 28 75 

Matthew 17 : 5 12 

Matthew 18 : 1, 4 65 

Matthew 19 : 26 22, 69 

Matthew 20 : 21 65 

Matthew 20 : 28 20, 34, 39, 41 

Matthew 21 : 31 69 

Matthew 21 : 43 73 

Matthew 22 : 29 17 

Matthew 22 : 40 48 

Matthew 23 : 14 66 

Matthew23:33 115 

Matthew25:33 116 

Matthew 25: 34 73, 75 

Matthew 25 : 46 115, 117 

Matthew 26: 28 38 f., 52 

Matthew 26 : 39 .. 32, 49 

Matthew 26 : 63 f 27 

Matthew 27: 46 32, 49 

Matthew 28 : 18 29 

Matthew 28: 20 75 

Lukel:6 78 

Luke 2 : 49 , 13 

Luke 2 : 50 32 

Luke 2 : 51 31 

Luke 2 : 52 32 

Luke 3 : 22 13 

Luke 4 : 18 - 34 

Luke 6 : 20-26 79 

Luke 6 : 31 80 

Luke 6 : 3&-42 80 

Luke 6: 43-49 80 

Luke 9 : 25 50 

Luke 9: 41 46 

Luke 9: 58 32 

Luke 9: 60 50 

Luke 10 : 22 17 

Luke 11 : 31f 26 

Luke 11 : 37-54 82 

Luke 12 : 32 64 



Luke 13 
Luke 13 
Luke 13 
Luke 15 
Luke 15 
Luke 15 
Luke 15 
Luke 15 
Luke 15 
Luke 15 
Luke 16 
Luke 16 
Luke 17 
Luke 18 
Luke 18 
Luke 19 
Luke 19 
Luke 22 
Luke 22 
Luke 22 
Luke 22 
Luke 22 
Luke 23 



5 

23 f.... 

28 

1 

7 

32 

18 

20 

21 

32 

16 

31 

20 f.... 

9 

13 

10 

18 

16, 18. 

30 

42 

46 

69 

46 



PAGE 

... 50 

... 76 

.. 70 

... 43 

... 20 

... 20 

... 15 

... 19 

... 53 

... 19 

... 62 

... 109 

... 64 

... 82 

... 44 

... 34 

... 22 

... 70 

... 75 

... 52 

... 52 

... 30 

... 14 



John 1 : 1 27, 28 

John 1 : 18 23, 28 

John 1 : 29 20, 42 

John 1 : 51 30 

John 2 : 4 31 

John 2 : 16 13 

John 3:3 15, 53, 57 

John 3 : 5 57 

John 3 : 14 20 

John 3: 16 19, 34 

John 4: 13 f 34 

John 4: 24 22 

John 4 : 26 33 

John 4 : 34 30, 34 

John 5:17 14, 23 

John 5 : 20 27 

John 5: 21 29 

John 5 : 22 21 

John 5 : 23 18 

John 5 : 25 27 



124 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES 



PAGE 

John 5: 26 28, 118 

John 5 : 29 113 

John 5:39 16 

John 5 : 40 40 

John 6: 15 63 

John 6: 37 21, 119 

John 6 : 38 f 33 

John 6 : 44 21 

John 6:46 17, 23 

John 6 : 55-58 34 

John 6:57 22, 33 

John 6 : 63 12 

John 6 : 68 f 40 

John 7 : 17 90 

John 7 : 21 90 

John 7 : 29 28 

John 7 : 37 35 

John 8: 12 26, 29, 34 

John 8 : 23 29 

John 8 : 24 44 

John 8 : 34 44 

John 8:36 44, 54 

John 8 : 39 17 

John 8:42 28 

John 8:44 15, 45 

John 8:46 43 

John 8:58 26, 27, 29 

John 9 : 35 27 

John 9 : 41 44 

John 10 : 1-18 34 

John 10 : 10 54 

John 10 : 17 52 

John 10:30 14, 28 

John 11:25 28, 29 

John 11 : 26 54 

John 12 : 21 54 

John 12 : 24 f 39, 52 

John 12 : 27 52 

John 12:32 39, 52, 54 

John 12 : 45 19 

John 12 : 46 34 

John 12 : 49 33 



PAGE 

John 14 : 1 54 

John 14 : 3 , 109 

John 14:6 18, 37 

John 14 : 7 24 

John 14:8 17 

John 14 : 9 11, 18 

John 14 : 11 19 

John 14 : 19 118 

John 14:23 23, 106 

John 14: 26 102 

John 15:22 43 

John 15: 26 99, 100 

John 16 : 7 100 

John 16:8 43, 104 

John 16 : 12 102 

John 16 : 13 102 

John 16: 14 93, 102 

John 16 : 15 , 108 

John 16 : 28 26 

John 17 : 3 24 

John 17 : 4 18 

John 17:5 22, 26 

John 17:24 26 

John 17:25f 18, 23 

John 18 : 37 33 

John 19 : 26 31 

John 19 : 30 52 

John 21 : 17 37 

Acts 1 : 6 67 

2 Corinthians 8 : 9 32 

Romans 3-5 79 

Romans 6-8 79 

Romans 12 : 3 25 

1 Peter 2:5 74 

Hebrews 12 : 9 15 

Revelation 11 : 15 75 



TOPICAL INDEX 



Abraham, 16, 17, 26, 29, 70, 111, 120. 
Adam, 44. 

Atonement, 38 f., 52. 
Augustine, 100, 120. 

Baptist, John the, 17, 20, 33, 42, 48, 

56, 61, 79, 86, 120. 
Boyce, 120. 
Broad us, 120. 
Buddha, 11. 

Calvin, 100, 120. 
Cana, 31. 

Character, 78, 80 f. 
Christian Science, 42. 
Chrysostom, 120. 
Confucius, 11. 
Creed, 90. 
Cross, 39 f. 

Daniel, 31. 

David, 58, 73, 94, 120. 

Dedication, feast of, 14. 

Elijah, 120. 
Elizabeth, 78. 
Epictetus, 11. 
Eve, 44. 
Evolution, 44. 

Future life : mentioned, 109 f. ; a 
voice from heaven about, 109; 
reality of, 110; everlasting, 111; 
the real life ahead, 112; condi- 
tioned by this life, 114 ; the judg- 
ment in, 116 ; the fact of hell in, 
117; essentially eternal, 118; 



Christ's picture of heaven in 
connection with, 119. 

Gay lectures, 47. 

Gerizim, 22. 

Gethsemane, 49. 

God the Father : revealed, 11 f. ; 
the Father of Jesus, 14 ; Father 
of all believers, 14; Father in 
one sense of all men, 15; Old 
Testament view of, 16 ; new light 
on, from Jesus, 17; the way to 
know, 18; his yearning for the 
sinner, 19 ; his effort to save the 
sinner, 19; his welcome to the 
repentant sinner, 20; as judge, 
21 ; character of, 22 ; present in 
his world, 23 ; dwells in his 
children, 23. 

Incarnation, 30. 

Isaiah, 120. 

Israel, 16. 

The Holy Spirit : brought to view, 
93; place of, in Christ's teach- 
ing, 93 ; doctrine of, not new, 
94; personality of, 95; relation 
of, to the Father, 96 ; relation of, 
to the Son, 97 ; our apprehension 
of Christ by, 100; the apostolic 
teaching concerning, 101 ; and 
the world, 104; and the Chris- 
tian, 106; the power of Chris- 
tianity, 107. 



James, 12. 

James, Epistle of, 79. 



125 



126 



TOPICAL INDEX 



Jerusalem, 12, 13, 15, 22, 104. 

Jesus as teacher, 11. 

John, 12, 120. 

John the Baptist, 17, 20, 33, 42, 48» 

56, 61, 79, 86, 120. 
Jordan, 61. 

Joseph of Arimathea, 63. 
Judea, 104. 

Knox, 120. 

Kingdom : considered, 56 f. ; 
theme of Jesus' teaching, 55 ; 
origin of the term, 57; popular 
idea of, 60; various senses of 
the word, 60; beginning of, 62 
character of, 63; entrance into 
67; present and future, 70 
gradual growth of, 71; perm a 
nence of, 73 ; final victory of, 74 
cosmopolitan in scope, 76. 

Lazarus, HI. 

Marcus Aurelius, 11. 

Mary, 37. 

Messianic consciousness of Jesus, 

13, 32, 33. 
Moses, 92, 120. 

Nathan, 58. 
Nicodemus, 15, 68. 

Oxyrhynchus sayings of Jesus, 64. 

Palestine, 116. 

Paul, 24, 111, 120. 

Peter, 12, 37, 40, 73, 102, 103, 120. 

Pharisees, 14, 15, 36, 47, 65, 67, 79, 

82 f., 115. 
Philip, 17, 18, 54, 61. 
Pilate, 67, 69, 70. 

Resurrection, 38. 

Righteousness : discussed, 78 f . ; 
theme of the Sermon on the 
Mount, 79; significance of 



Christ's teaching about, 80 ; true, 
contrasted with that of the 
scribes, 81; of the Pharisee, 
82 ; of the Sadducee, 85 ; Christ's 
conception of, 86; varying 
standards of, 91; our hope of 
attaining, 91. 

Sadducees, 47, 85 f . 

Samaria, 104. 

Samaria, woman of, 22. 

Satan, 41, 74, 75. 

Saul, 58. 

Scribe, 81. 

Sermon on the Mount, 35, 65, 79 f. 

Sin : considered, 41 f. ; theological 
aspects of, 41 ; reality of, 42 ; 
origin of, 44 ; nature of, 45 ; pen- 
alty of, 49 ; remedy for, 51. 

Socrates, 11, 17. 

The Son of Man : questions per- 
taining to, 25 f. ; his egoism, 25 ; 
pre-incarnate state of, 26; rela- 
tion of, to the Father, 27 ; divin- 
ity of, 28; connection of, with 
mankind, 30 ; Messianic self- con- 
sciousness of, 32 ; his conception 
of his own mission, 33 ; love for 
the world by, 34; his attitude 
toward the Old Testament, 35 ; 
attitude of, toward current teach- 
ing, 36 ; knowledge of, 37 ; cen- 
tral thought of, 38. 

Son of God, 31. 

Son of Man, 31. 

Spurgeon, 120. 

Stalker, 47, 78. 

Thomas, 18. 

Virgin birth, 27. 

Wordsworth, 26. 

Zacharias, 78. 
Zoroaster, 11. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Adamson, Studies in the Mind of 

Christ, 1898. 
James Robertson, The Teaching of 

Our Lord, 1900. 
Horton, The Teaching of Jesus, 

1895. 
G. B. Stevens, The Teaching of Je- 
sus, 1901. 
Weudt, The Teaching of Jesus, 

1892. 
Jackson, The Teaching of Jesus, 

1903. 
Moorhouse, The Teaching of 

Christ, 1S91. 
Swete, Studies in the Teaching of 

Our Lord, 1903. 
King, The Theology of Christ, 1903. 
Seeburg, Das Evangelien Christ i, 

1905. 
Stubbs, Verba Christi, 1903. 
Sanday, The Teaching of Jesus, in 

article Jesus Christ, in Hasting's 

Dictionary of the Bible, and in 

Outlines of the Life of Christ, 

1905. 
Lancaster, The Creed of Christ, 

1905. 
Anonymous, The Creed of Christ, 

1905. 
Tigert, The Christianity of Christ 

and His Apostles, 1905. 
Bosworth, Studies in the Teaching 

of Jesus and His Apostles, 1900. 
Speer, the Principles of Jesus, 1902. 
Stier, The Words of Jesus, 1869. 
D. Meyer, Le Christianisme du Christ, 

1883. 



A. T. Robertson, The Teaching of 
Jesus Concerning God the 
Father, 1904. 

Crane, The Teaching of Jesus 
Concerning the Holy Spirit, 
1905. 

Ross, The Self-Portraiture of Jesus, 
1904. 

Bernard, The Central Teaching of 
Christ, 1897. 

Stalker, The Christology of Jesus, 
1899. 

Foster, The Teaching of Jesus Con- 
cerning His Own Mission, 1903. 

D'Arcy, Ruling Ideas of our Lord, 
1901. 

Fairbairn. The Place o' Christ in 
Modern Theology, 1893. 

Gilbert, The Revelation of Jesus, 
1S99. 

Ian Maclaren, The Mind of the 
Master, 1896. 

J. Weiss, Die Predigt Jesu von 
Reiche, 1892. 

Krop, La Pensee de Jesus sur le 
Eoyaume de Dieu. 

Titius, Jesu Lehre vom Eeiche Gottes 
1895. 

Schnedermann, Jesu Verkundigung 
u nd Lehre vom Eeiche Gottes in 
ihrer geschichtlichen Bedeutung 
da rgestellt. Bde I. , II. , 1895. 

Vos, The Teaching of Jesus Con- 
cerning the Kingdom and the 
Church, 1903. 

Mathews, The Social Teaching of 
Jesus, 1897. 

127 



128 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Heuver, The Teaching of Jesus 
Concerning Wealth, 1903. 

Peabody, Jesus and the Social 
Question, 1901. 

Haupt, Die Eschatologuchen Aus- 
sagen Jesu in den Synoptischen 
Evangelien, 1895. 

Muirhead, The Eschatology of Je- 
sus, 1904. 

Briggs, The Ethical Teaching of 
Jesus 1904. 

Hermann, Die Sittlichen Weisungen 
Jesu, 1904. 

Grimm, Die Ethik Jesu, 1903. 

Peabody, Jesus Christ and Chris- 
tian Character, 1905. 

Bachmann, Die Sittenlehre Jesu, 
1904. 

Fluegel, Die Sittenlehre Jesu, 1888. 

Broadus, The Ethical Teaching of 
Jesus, Lecture II., in Jesus of 
Nazareth, 1889. 

Zenos, The Teaching of Jesus 
Concerning Christian Conduct, 
1905.1 

Hyde, Jesus' Way, 1902. 

Ehrhardt, Die Grundcharakter der 
Ethik Jesu, 1895. 

Schuerer, Die Predigt Jesu Christi 
in ihren verhdltniss zum A. T. und 
zum Judenthum, 1882. 

Bousset, Jesu' Predigt in ihrer Gegen- 
satz zum Judenthum, 1892. 

Burrell, The Teaching of Jesus 
Concerning the Scriptures, 1904. 

Saphir, Christ and the Scriptures. 

MacFarland, Jesus and the Proph- 
ets, 1905. 

Rae, How Jesus Handled Holy 
Writ, 1902. 

Mead, Christ and Criticism. 

Nicoll, The Church's One Founda- 
tion, 1905. 



Ellicott, Christus Comprobator. 

Bischoff, Jesus and die Rabbinen, 
1905. 

Vaughan, Characteristics of 
Christ's Teaching, 1866. 

Special books on the Sermon on the 
Mount by Augustine (Trench) 
Boyd-Carpenter, Genung, Mack 
intosh, Tholuck, Achelis, Stein 
meyer, Heinrici, Bacon 
Schenck, Griffith-Jones, Grau 
vert, Shorthouse, Votaw (Hast 
ings' Dictionary), Lyttleton, lb 
beken, H. Weiss, Bossuet, Gore 
Kaiser, Monneron, Harnisch 
Grullich. 

The Parables also have received 
frequent treatment, as in the 
works of Drummond, Calder 
wood, Bruce, Goebel, Lisco 
Trench, W. M. Taylor, Arnot, 
Bourdillon, Thompson, Dods 
Salmond, Resker, Tait, Juel 
icher, Steinmeyer, Habershon 
Bugge, Weinel, Lang, Buisson 
Guthrie, Beyschlag, Thiersch 
Tamm, Freystedt, Fiebig, Plum- 
mer (Hastings' Dictionary). 

On the death of Christ see : 

Schwartzkopff, The Prophecies of 
Jesus Christ Relating to His 
Death, etc., 1897. 

Babut, La Pensie sur la Mort, 1897. 

Denney, The Death of Christ, 1902. 

Hoffmann, Das Selbstbewusstsein 
Jesu, 1904. 

Schuerer, Das Messianische Selbst- 
bewusstsein Jesu. 

Baldensperger, Das Selbstbewusst- 
sein Jesu, 1892. 

See also the various books on Bib- 
lical Theology of the New Testa- 
ment. 



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